When I contrast the loving Jesus, comprehending all things in his ample and tender charity, with those who profess to bear his name, marking their zeal by what they do not love, it seems to me as though men, like the witches of old, had read the Bible backward, and had taken incantations out of it for evil, rather than inspiration for good.

In some way the secret vice exhales its poison; and the evil passion, however cunningly masked, stains through to the surface.

God is the explanation of all things.

The mere leader of fashion has no genuine claim to supremacy; at least, no abiding assurance of it. He has embroidered his title upon his waistcoat, and carries his worth in his watch chain; and, if he is allowed any real precedence for this it is almost a moral swindle,--a way of obtaining goods under false pretences.

This is the essential evil of vice: it debases a man.

In this world the inclination to do things is of more importance than the mere power.

Whatever you truly conceive of in the mind, is possible.