The way to avoid evil is not by maiming our passions, but by compelling them to yield their vigor to our moral nature.

Poverty is very good in poems but very bad in the house; very good in maxims and sermons but very bad in practical life.

Truths are first clouds; then rain, then harvest and food.

The thistle is a prince. Let any man that has an eye for beauty take a view of the whole plant, and where will he see a more expressive grace and symmetry; and where is there a more kingly flower?

When a man's pride is subdued it's like the sides of Mount Aetna. It was terrible during the eruption, but when that is over and the lava is turned into soil, there are vineyards and olive trees which grow up to the top.

Many men are stored full of unused knowledge. Like loaded guns that are never fired off, or military magazines in times of peace, they are stuffed with useless ammunition.

I beseech you to correct one fault - severe speech of others; never speak evil of any man, no matter what the facts may be.