Dishonest people conceal their faults from themselves as well as others, honest people know and confess them.

The legitimate aim of criticism is to direct attention to the excellent. The bad will dig its own grave, and the imperfect may safely be left to that final neglect from which no amount of present undeserved popularity can rescue it.

We give our best affections to the beautiful, only our second best to the useful.

There is no tyrant like custom, and no freedom where its edicts are not resisted.

Every trait of beauty may be referred to some virtue, as to innocence, candor, generosity, modesty, or heroism. St. Pierre To cultivate the sense of the beautiful, is one of the most effectual ways of cultivating an appreciation of the divine goodness.

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

Motives are better than actions. Men drift into crime. Of evil they do more than they contemplate, and of good they contemplate more than they do.