What do I owe to my times, to my country, to my neighbors, to my friends? Such are the questions which a virtuous man ought often to ask himself.

Who partakes in another's joys is a more humane character than he who partakes in his griefs.

He who seldom speaks, and with one calm well-timed word can strike dumb the loquacious, is a genius or a hero.

What knowledge is there of which man is capable that is not founded on the exterior,--the relation that exists between visible and invisible, the perceptible and the imperceptible?

The creditor whose appearance gladdens the heart of a debtor may hold his head in sunbeams and his foot on storms.

Thinkers are as scarce as gold.

You may tell a man thou art a fiend, but not your nose wants blowing; to him alone who can bear a thing of that kind, you may tell all.