parents are too apt to mistake inclination for genius.

We are apt to mistake our vocation by looking out of the way for occasions to exercise great and rare virtues, and by stepping over the ordinary ones that lie directly in the road before us.

It is doing some service to humanity, to amuse innocently. They know but little of society who think we can bear to be always employed, either in duties or meditation, without relaxation.

Going to the opera, like getting drunk, is a sin that carries its own punishment with it.

it is the modern nature of goodness to exert itself quietly, while a few characters of the opposite cast seem, by the rumor of their exploits, to fill the world; and by their noise to multiply their numbers.

Goals help you overcome short-term problems.

In grief we know the worst of what we feel but who can tell the end of what we fear?