Our infinite obligations to God do not fill our hearts half as much as a petty uneasiness of our own; nor His infinite perfections as much as our smallest wants.

The ingenuity of self-deception is inexhaustible.

The ubiquity of the Divine presence is the only true support, and I am sometimes astonished how persons, who evidently do not possess that grand source of consolation, keep up their spirits under trials and difficulties. It must be owing to careless tempers and nerves of brass.

Affliction is the school in which great virtues are acquired, in which great characters are formed.

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

Youth has a quickness of apprehension, which it is very apt to mistake for an acuteness of penetration.

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