Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books.

The French revolution was a .eune invented and constructed for the purpose of manufacturing liberty; but it had neither lever cogs, nor adjusting powers, and the consequences were that it worked so rapidly that it destroyed its own inventors, and set itself on fire.

When in reading we meet with any maxim that may be of use, we should take it for our own, and make an immediate application of it, as we would of the advice of a friend whom we have purposely consulted.

Butler compared the tongues of these eternal talkers to race-horses, which go the faster the less weight they carry.

A house may draw visitors, but it is the possessor alone that can detain them.

The mob is a monster, with the hands of Briareus, but the head of Polyphemus,--strong to execute, but blind to perceive.

By paying our other debts, we are equal with all mankind; but in refusing to pay a debt of revenge, we are superior.