The return we reap from generous actions is not always evident.

He is less likely to be mistaken who looks forward to a change in the affairs of the world than he who regards them as firm and stable.

Waste no time with revolutions that do not remove the causes of your complaints but simply change the faces of those in charge.

I know no man who feels deeper disgust than I do at the ambition, avarice, and profligacy of the priesthood, as well because every one of these vices is odious in itself, as because each of them separately and all of them together are utterly abhorrent in men making profession of a life dedicated to God.

Experience has always shown, and reason also, that affairs which depend on many seldom succeed.

There is nothing so fleeting as the memory of benefits received.

Ambition is not in itself an evil; nor is he to be condemned whose spirit prompts him to seek fame by worthy and honourable ways.