We enter the world alone, we leave it alone.

In every department of life--in its business and in its pleasures, in its beliefs and in its theories, in its material developments and in its spiritual connections--we thank God that we are not like our fathers.

I cannot think the disputes and jealousies of Heaven are tried and settled by the swords of earth.

The best that we can do for one another is to exchange our thoughts freely; and that, after all, is about all.

Experience teaches slowly, and at the cost of mistakes.

A single seed of fact will produce in a season or two a harvest of calumnies; but sensible men will pay no attention to them.

If you think you can temper yourself into manliness by sitting here over your books, it is the very silliest fancy that ever tempted a young man to his ruin. You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.