Only have enough of little virtues and common fidelities, and you need not mourn because you are neither a hero nor a saint.

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.

No man is more cheated than the selfish man.

Men are like trees: each one must put forth the leaf that is created in him.

There is no such thing as white lies; a lie is as black as a coalpit, and twice as foul.

A man's true estate of power and riches is to be in himself; not in his dwelling or position or external relations, but in his own essential character.

The clearest window that ever was fashioned if it is barred by spiders' webs, and hung over with carcasses of insects, so that the sunlight has forgotten to find its way through, of what use can it be? Now, the Church is God's window; and if it is so obscured by errors that its light is darkness, how great is that darkness!