Wit must be without effort. Wit is play, not work; a nimbleness of the fancy, not a laborious effort of the will; a license, a holiday, a carnival of thought and feeling, not a trifling with speech, a constraint upon language, a duress upon words.

Good men have the fewest fears. He has but one great fear who fears to do wrong; he has a thousand who has overcome it.

It is the nature of thought to find its way into action.

Dishonesty is a forsaking of permanent for temporary advantages.

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

It is our relation to circumstances that determines their influence upon us.

The small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble it.