If self-knowledge is the road to virtue, so is virtue still more the road to self-knowledge.

Despair is the only genuine atheism.

The conscience of children is formed by the influences that surround them; their notions of good and evil are the result of the moral atmosphere they breathe.

Has it never occurred to us, when surrounded by sorrows, that they may be sent to us only for our instruction, as we darken the eyes of birds when we wish them to sing?

What Cicero said of men-that they are like wines, age souring the bad, and bettering the good-we can say of misfortune, that it has the same effect upon them.

Courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it, and conquering it.

The miracle on earth are the laws of heaven.