Cheerfulness is an offshoot of goodness and of wisdom.

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.

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

The life even of a just man is a round of petty frauds; that of a knave a series of greater. We degrade life by our follies and vices, and then complain that the unhappiness which is only their accompaniment is inherent in the constitution of things.

Pure motives do not insure perfect results.

Music is the fourth great material want, first food, then clothes, then shelter, then music.

Weakness ineffectually seeks to disguise itself,--like a drunken man trying to show how sober he is.