Story-telling is subject to two unavoidable defects,--frequent repetition and being soon exhausted; so that, whoever values this gift in himself, has need of a good memory, and ought frequently to shift his company.

I have now lost my barrier between me and death; God grant I may live to be as well prepared for it, as I confidently believe her to have been! If the way to Heaven be through piety, truth, justice and charity, she is there.

There is nothing constant in this world but inconsistency.

Hereditary right should be kept sacred, not from any inalienable right in a particular family, but to avoid the consequences that usually attend the ambition of competitors.

A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.

It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not.

All panegyrics are mingled with an infusion of poppy.