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

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.

Expectation ... quickens desire, while possession deadens it.

Affliction is a sort of moral gymnasium in which the disciples of Christ are trained to robust exercise, hardy exertion, and severe conflict.

A faint endeavor ends in a sure defeat.

Where bright imagination reigns, the fine-wrought spirit feels acuter pains.

It is the large aggregate of small things perpetually occurring that robs me of all my time. The expense of learning to read might have been spared in my education, for I never read.