The small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble it.

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.

Economy is for the poor; the rich may dispense with it.

We should not so much esteem our poverty as a misfortune, were it not that the world treats it so much as a crime

Enthusiasm is the inspiration of everything great. Without it no man is to be feared, and with it none despised.

Hope is the best part of our riches. What sufficeth it that we have the wealth of the Indies in our pockets, if we have not the hope of heaven in our souls?

Whether one talks well depends very much upon whom he has to talk to.