Error, when she retraces her steps, has farther to go before she can arrive at truth than ignorance.

True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.

We shall at all times chance upon men of recondite acquirements, but whose qualifications, from the incommunicative and inactive habits of their owners, are as utterly useless to others as though the possessors had them not.

The science of mathematics performs more than it promises, but the science of metaphysics promises more than it performs.

We often regret we did not do otherwise, when that very otherwise would, in all probability, have done for us.

As there are none so weak that we may venture to injure them with impunity, so there are none so low that they may not at some time be able to repay an obligation. Therefore, what benevolence would dictate, prudence would confirm.

Some frauds succeed from the apparent candor, the open confidence, and the full blaze of ingenuousness that is thrown around them. The slightest mystery would excite suspicion and ruin all. Such stratagems may be compared to the stars; they are discoverable by darkness and hidden only by light.