Honor is unstable and seldom the same; for she feeds upon opinion, and is as fickle as her food.

Kings and their subjects, masters and slaves, find a common level in two places - at the foot of the cross, and in the grave.

Posthumous fame is a plant of tardy growth, for our body must be the seed of it; or we may liken it to a torch, which nothing but the last spark of life can light up; or we may compare it to the trumpet of the archangel, for it is blown over the dead; but unlike that awful blast, it is of earth, not of heaven, and can neither rouse nor raise us.

Gaming has been resorted to by the affluent as a refuge from ennui. It is a mental dram, and may succeed for a moment; but, like all other stimuli, it produces indirect debility.

We are sure to be losers when we quarrel with ourselves; it is civil war.

There is nothing more imprudent than excessive prudence.

They that are loudest in their threats are the weakest in the execution of them. It is probable that he who is killed by lightning hears no noise; but the thunder-clap which follows, and which most alarms the ignorant, is the surest proof of their safety.