Law and equity are two things which God has joined, but which man has put asunder.

Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness when bequeathed by those who, even alive, would part with nothing.

He that has never suffered extreme adversity knows not the full extent of his own depravation.

Time, the cradle of hope.... Wisdom walks before it, opportunity with it, and repentance behind it: he that has made it his friend will have little to fear from his enemies, but he that has made it his enemy will have little to hope from his friends.

Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.

She is deceitful as the calm that precedes the hurricane, smooth as the water on the verge of the cataract, and beautiful as the rainbow, that smiling daughter of the storm; but, like the mirage in the desert, she tantalizes us with a delusion that distance creates, and that contiguity destroys.

If Satan ever laughs, it must be at hypocrites; they are the greatest dupes he has.