As the rose-tree is composed of the sweetest flowers and the sharpest thorns, as the heavens are sometimes overcast—alternately tempestuous and serene—so is the life of man intermingled with hopes and fears, with joys and sorrows, with pleasure and pain.

Where two motives, neither of them perfectly justifiable, may be assigned, the worst has the chance of being preferred.

Applaud us when we run, Console us when we fall, Cheer us when we recover.

But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.

In history, a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities of mankind.

Vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.