As threshing separates the wheat from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue.

A mother's love is indeed the golden link that binds youth to age; and he is still but a child, however time may have furrowed his cheek, or silvered his brow, who can yet recall, with a softened heart, the fond devotion, or the gentle chidings, of the best friend that God gives us.

Fame - a few words upon a tombstone, and the truth of those not to be depended on.

Melancholy sees the worst of things...[rather than the best]

Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and approximate to the characters we most admire.

A sound discretion is not so much indicated by never making a mistake as by never repeating it.

No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.