It is not designed that the road should be made too smooth for us here upon earth.

Bright was the summer of 1296. The war which had desolated Scotland was then at an end.

The platform or the altar of love may be analyzed and explained; it is constructed of virtue, beauty, and affection. Such is the pyre, such is the offering; but the ethereal spark must come from heaven, that lights the sacrifice.

He that easily believes rumors has the principle within him to augment rumors. It is strange to see the ravenous appetite with which some devourers of character and happiness fix upon the sides of the innocent and unfortunate.

Happiness is a sunbeam which may pass through a thousand bosoms without losing a particle of its original ray; nay, when it strikes on a kindred heart, like the converged light on a mirror, it reflects itself with redoubled brightness. It is not perfected till it is shared.

In his fairy dreams of war [Thaddeus] always made conquest the sure end of his battles.

Nobility, without virtue, is a fine setting without a gem