I do not hesitate to say that the road to eminence and power, from an obscure condition, ought not to be made too easy, nor a thing too much of course. If rare merit be the rarest of all things, it ought to pass through some sort of probation. The temple of honor ought to be seated on an eminence. If it be open through virtue, let it be remembered, too, that virtue is never tried but by some difficulty and some struggle.

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.

No sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing voice of Christian charity.

I have not yet lost a feeling of wonder, and of delight, that the delicate motion should reside in all the things around us, revealing itself only to him who looks for it.

No man can mortgage his injustice as a pawn for his fidelity.

It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.

We must not always judge of the generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation.