Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part.

Benevolent desires, after passing a certain point, can not undertake their own fulfillment without incurring the risk of evils beyond those sought to be remedied.

To a sensitive being, pity is not seldom pain.

Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.

The world's a ship on its voyage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow.

It is not the purpose of literature to purvey news. For news consult the Almanac de Gotha.

That nameless and infinitely delicate aroma of inexpressible tenderness and attentiveness which, in every refined and honorable attachment, is contemporary with the courtship, and precedes the final banns and the rite; but which, like the bouquet of the costliest German wines, too often evaporates upon pouring love out to drink, in the disenchanting glasses of the matrimonial days and nights.