Sacrifice is the first element of religion, and resolves itself in theological language into the love of God.

Morality, when vigorously alive, sees farther than intellect, and provides unconsciously for intellectual difficulties.

Nature is not a partisan, but out of her ample treasue house she produces children in infinite variety, of which she is equally the mother, and disowns none of them.

Beautiful is old age—beautiful as the slow-dropping mellow autumn of a rich glorious summer. In the old man, Nature has fulfilled her work; she loads him with blessings; she fills him with the fruits of a well-spent life; and, surrounded by his children and his children's children, she rocks him softly away to a grave, to which he is followed with blessings. God forbid we should not call it beautiful.

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.

The secret of a person's nature lies in their religion and what they really believes about the world and their place in it.

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.