Don't let us rejoice in punishment, even when the hand of God alone inflicts it. The best of us are but poor wretches, just saved from shipwreck. Can we feel anything but awe and pity when we see a fellow-passenger swallowed by the waves?

Under every guilty secret there is hidden a brood of guilty wishes, whose unwholesome infecting life is cherished by the darkness.

Appearances have very little to do with happiness.

... indefinite visions of ambition are weak against the ease of doing what is habitual or beguilingly agreeable.

If the past is not to bind us, where can duty lie? We should have no law but the inclination of the moment.

In the man whose childhood has known caresses and kindness, there is always a fiber of memory that can be touched to gentle issues.

It is very difficult to be learned; it seems as if people were worn out on the way to great thoughts, and can never enjoy them because they are too tired.