the modes of speech are scarcely more variable than the modes of silence.

Anger is a violent act, envy a constant habit - no one can be always angry, but he may be always envious.

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.

If we commit any crime, or do any good here, it must be in thought; for our words are few and our deeds none at all.

After all that corrupt poets, and more corrupt philosophers, have told us of the blandishments of pleasure, and of its tendency to soften the temper and humanize the affections, it is certain, that nothing hardens the heart like excessive and unbounded luxury; and he who refuses the fewest gratifications to his own voluptuousness, will generally be found the least susceptible of tenderness for the wants of others.

Resentment is an evil so costly to our peace that we should find it more cheap to forgive even were it no more right.

The sober comfort, all the peace which springs from the large aggregate of little things.