No one has ever learned fully to know themselves.

It is impossible that beauty should ever distinctly appreciate itself.

It is only in misery that we recognize the hand of God leading good men to good.

Normally, people believe that, if they hear just words, that these words must lead to some thought.

As for solitude, I cannot understand how certain people seek to lay claim to intellectual stature, nobility of soul and strength of character, yet have not the slightest feeling for seclusion; for solitude, I maintain, when joined with a quiet contemplation of nature, a serene and conscious faith in creation and the Creator, and a few vexations from outside is the only school for a mind of lofty endowment.

Hope is the second soul of the unhappy.

There is no permanence in doubt; it incites the mind to closer inquiry and experiment, from which, if rightly managed, certainty proceeds, and in this alone can man find thorough satisfaction.