Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.

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

It is curious that we pay statesmen for what they say, not for what they do; and judge of them from what they do, not from what they say. Hence they have one code of maxims for profession and another for practice, and make up their consciences as the Neapolitans do their beds, with one set of furniture for show and another for use.

It is seldom that statesmen have the option of choosing between a good and an evil.

Cheerfulness ought to be the viaticum vitae of their life to the old; age without cheerfulness is a Lapland winter without a sun.

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

The martyrs to vice far exceed the martyrs to virtue, both in endurance and in number.