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

If Satan ever laughs, it must be at hypocrites; they are the greatest dupes he has.

Where true religion has prevented one crime, false religions have afforded a pretext for a thousand.

Pride, like the magnet, constantly points to one object, self; but, unlike the magnet, it has no attractive pole, but at all points repels.

Strong as our passions are, they may be starved into submission, and conquered without being killed.

There is this difference between happiness and wisdom; he that thinks himself the happiest man, really is so; but he that thinks himself the wisest, is generally the greatest fool.

In civil jurisprudence it too often happens that there is so much law, that there is no room for justice, and that the claimant expires of wrong in the midst of right, as mariners die of thirst in the midst of water.