No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.

But I think it is hardly an argument against a man's general strength of character, that he should be apt to be mastered by love. A fine constitution doesn't insure one against small-pox or any other of those inevitable diseases. A man may be very firm in other matters, and yet be under a sort of witchery from a woman.

If you deliver an opinion at all, it is mere stupidity not to do it with an air of conviction and well-founded knowledge. You make it your own in uttering it, and naturally get fond of it.

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.

To have in general but little feeling, seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any particular occasion.

... it is one thing to like defiance, and another thing to like its consequences.

Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.