My retirement was now become solitude; the former is, I believe, the best state for the mind of man, the latter almost the worst. In complete solitude, the eye wants objects, the heart wants attachments, the understanding wants reciprocation. The character loses its tenderness when it has nothing to strengthen it, its sweetness when it has nothing to soothe it.

When thou hast truly thanked the Lord for every blessing sent, But little time will then remain for murmur or lament.

we live in an age which must be amused, though genius, feeling, trust, and principle be the sacrifice.

The soul on earth is an immortal guest.

Temptation does not make the sin, it lies ready in the heart.

eternity is a depth which no geometry can measure, no arithmetic calculate, no imagination conceive, no rhetoric describe.

A corrupt practice may be abolished, but a soiled imagination is not easily cleansed.