To be obliged to beg our daily happiness from others bespeaks a more lamentable poverty than that of him who begs his daily bread.

It has been said that men carry on a kind of coasting trade with religion. In the voyage of life, they profess to be in search of heaven, but take care not to venture so far in their approximations to it, as entirely to lose sight of the earth; and should their frail vessel be in danger of shipwreck, they will gladly throw their darling vices overboard, as other mariners their treasures, only to fish them up again when the storm is over.

Villainy that is vigilant will be an overmatch for virtue, if she slumber at her post.

In order to try whether a vessel be leaky, we first prove it with water before we trust it with wine.

Sloth, if it has prevented many crimes, has also smothered many virtues.

Accustom yourself to submit on all and every occasion, and on the most minute, no less than on the most important circumstances of life, to a small present evil, to obtain a greater distant good. This will give decision, tone, and energy to the mind, which, thus disciplined, will often reap victory from defeat and honor from repulse.

Ignorance is a blank sheet, on which we may write; but error is a scribbled one, on which we must first erase.