As we advance in life, we learn the limits of our abilities.

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.

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.

Just laws are no restraint upon the freedom of the good, for the good man desires nothing which a just law will interfere with.

The Providence that watches over the affairs of men works out of their mistakes, at times, a healthier issue than could have been accomplished by their wisest forethought.

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

Where nature is sovereign, there is no need of austerity and self-denial.