Invention is nothing more than a fine deviation from, or enlargement on a fine model . . .

Whenever man commits a crime heaven finds a witness.

Keep unscathed the good name; keep out of peril the honor without which even your battered old soldier who is hobbling into his grave on half-pay and a wooden leg would not change with Achilles.

Laws die, books never.

Fortune is said to be blind, but her favorites never are. Ambition has the eye of the eagle, prudence that of the lynx; the first looks through the air, the last along the ground.

Life, that ever needs forgiveness, has, for its first duty, to forgive.

Every man who observes vigilantly, and resolves steadfastly, grows unconsciously into genius.