A good character when established should not be rested in as an end, but only employed as a means of doing still further good.

If God be infinitely holy, just, and good, He must take delight in those creatures that resemble Him most in these perfections.

A sturdy, hardened sinner shall advance to the utmost pitch of impiety, with less reluctance than he took the first step while his conscience was yet vigilant and tender.

Luther deters me from solitariness; but he does not mean from a sober solitude that rallies our scattered strengths and prepares us against any new encounter from without.

There is a variety in tempers of good men.

Modesty teaches us to speak of the ancients with respect, especially when we are not very familiar with their works. Newton, who knew them practically by heart, had the greatest respect for them, and considered them to be men of genius and superior intelligence who had carried their discoveries in every field much further than we today suspect, judging from what remains of their writings. More ancient writings have been lost than have been preserved, and perhaps our new discoveries are of less value than those that we have lost.

A good man not only forbears those gratifications which are forbidden by reason and religion, but even restrains himself in unforbidden instances.