Some men are like pyramids, which are very broad where they touch the ground, but grow narrow as they reach the sky.

The last person one wants to be is themselves. Sadly, that is the best person to be.

I pray on the principle that wine knocks the cork out of a bottle. There is an inward fermentation, and there must be a vent.

Riches are not an end of life, but an instrument of life.

Expedients are for the hour, but principles are for the ages.

Refinement is the lifting of one's self upwards from the merely sensual; the effort of the soul to etherealize the common wants and uses of life.

A very common flower adds generosity to beauty. It gives joy to the poor, to the rude, and to the multitudes who could have no flowers were nature to charge a price for her blossoms.