Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity than straigthforward and simple integrity in another. A knave would rather quarrel with a brother knave than with a fool, but he would rather avoid a quarrel with one honest man than with both. He can combat a fool by management and address, and he can conquer a knave by temptations. But the honest man is neither to be bamboozled nor bribed.

Patience is the support of weakness; impatience the ruin of strength.

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

There are many women who have never intrigued, and many men who have never gamed; but those who have done either but once are very extraordinary animals.

Public charities and benevolent associations for the gratuitous relief of every species of distress, are peculiar to Christianity; no other system of civil or religious policy has originated them; they form its highest praise and characteristic feature.

Wars are to the body politic, what drams are to the individual. There are times when they may prevent a sudden death, but if frequently resorted to, or long persisted in, they heighten the energies only to hasten the dissolution.

The brightest thunder-bolt is elicited from the darkest storm.