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

We cannot think too highly of our nature, nor too humbly of ourselves.

None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them.

Wars are to the body politic, what drams are to the individual. There are times when they may prevent a sudden death, but if frequently resorted to, or long persisted in, they heighten the energies only to hasten the dissolution.

Make no enemies; he is insignificant indeed that can do thee no harm.

The excesses of our youth are drafts upon our old age.

How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy! In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age we are looking backward to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day when we have time.