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.

Did not God Sometimes withhold in mercy what we ask, We should be ruined at our own request.

A faint endeavor ends in a sure defeat.

He who has once taken to drink can seldom be said to be guilty of one sin only.

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

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

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