I am persuaded that there is no affection of the human heart more exquisitely pure, than that which is felt by a grateful son towards a mother.

What ascends up in prayer descends to us again in blessings. It is like the rain which just now fell, and which had been drawn up from the ground in vapors to the clouds before it descended from them to the earth in that refreshing shower.

Where evil may be done, it is right to ponder; where only suffered, know the shortest pause is much too long.

Idleness among children, as among men, is the root of all evil, and leads to no other evil more certain than ill temper.

Who are those ever multiplying authors that with unparalleled fecundity are overstocking the world with their quick succeeding progeny? They are novel-writers.

We do not so much want books for good people, as books which will make bad ones better.

parents are too apt to mistake inclination for genius.