A profusion of fancies and quotations is out of place in a love-letter. True feeling is always direct, and never deviates into by-ways to cull flowers of rhetoric.

Earnestness is the devotion of all the faculties.

Great warriors, like great earthquakes, are principally remembered for the mischief they have done.

The best evidence of merit is a cordial recognition of it whenever and wherever it may be found.

The opinions of the misanthropical rest upon this very partial basis, that they adopt the bad faith of a few as evidence of the worthlessness of all.

Loss of sincerity is loss of vital power.

The most brilliant flashes of wit come from a clouded mind, as lightning leaps only from an obscure firmament.