Truth comes to us from the past, as gold is washed down from the mountains of Sierra Nevada, in minute but precious particles, and intermixed with infinite alloy, the debris of the centuries.

Repose without stagnation is the state most favorable to happiness. "The great felicity of life," says Seneca, "is to be without perturbations.

What we call conscience in many instances, is only a wholesome fear of the law.

Hard workers are usually honest; industry lifts them above temptation.

Love delights in paradoxes. Saddest when it has most reason to be gay, sighs are the signs of its deepest joy, and silence is the expression of its yearning tenderness.

The trouble with men of sense is that they are so dreadfully in earnest all the while.

It is only an error of judgment to make a mistake, but it argues an infirmity of character to adhere to it when discovered.