Great men are among the best gifts which God bestows upon a people.

There are pictures by Titian so steeped in golden splendors, that they look as if they would light up a dark room like a solar lamp.

One might feel indignant at the injustice which deals out what is called fame with so unequal a hand, were it not for the reflection that men who are competent to add to the intellectual wealth of the world, and enlarge the domain of knowledge, have learned to take popular applause at its true value, and to find in the faithful discharge of honorable duty a satisfaction which is its own reward.

Sunsets in themselves are generally superior to sunrises; but with the sunset we appreciate images drawn from departed peace and faded glory.

The shadow of human life is traced upon a golden ground of immortal hope.

Man is an animal that cannot long be left in safety without occupation; the growth of his fallow nature is apt to run into weeds.

The instinctive and universal taste of mankind selects flowers for the expression of its finest sympathies, their beauty and their fleetingness serving to make them the most fitting symbols of those delicate sentiments for which language itself seems almost too gross a medium.