Moral epochs have their course as well as the seasons. We can no more hold them fast than we can hold sun, moon, and stars. Our faults perpetually return upon us; and herein lies the subtlest difficulty of self-knowledge.

There are situations in which hope and fear run together, in which they mutually destroy one another and lose themselves in dull indifference.

It is a maxim of wise government to treat people not as they should be but as they actually are.

What men usually say of misfortunes, that they never come alone, may with equal truth be said of good fortune; nay, of other circumstances which gather round us in a harmonious way, whether it arise from a kind of fatality, or that man has the power of attracting to himself things that are mutually related.

To know of someone here and there whom we accord with, who is living on with us, even in silence - - this makes our earthly ball a peopled garden.

Self-love exaggerates our faults as well as our virtues.

All sects seem to me to be right in what they assert, and wrong in what they deny.