I have somewhere seen it observed that we should make the same use of a book that the bee does of a flower: she steals sweets from it, but does not injure it.

Truth can hardly be expected to adapt herself to the crooked policy and wily sinuosities of worldly affairs; for truth, like light, travels only in straight lines.

Diffidence is the better part of knowledge.

Peace is the evening star of the soul, as virtue is its sun, and the two are never far apart.

Sometimes the greatest adversities turn out to be the greatest blessings.

It is not so difficult a task as to plant new truths, as to root out old errors

Ambition makes the same mistake concerning power that avarice makes concerning wealth. She begins by accumulating power as a means to happiness, and she finishes by continuing to accumulate it as an end.