In things that are tender and unpleasing, it is good to break the ice by some one whose words are of less weight, and to reserve the more weighty voice to come in as by chance.

Learning teaches how to carry things in suspense, without prejudice, till you resolve it.

Spouses are great impediments to great enterprises.

When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.

Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.

If my people look as if they're in a dreadful fix, it's because I can't get them out of a technical dilemma.

Do not wonder if the common people speak more truly than those above them: they speak more safely.