Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

The end of a man's life is often compared to the winding up of a well written play, where the principal persons still act in character, whatever the fate in which they undergo.

Misery and ignorance are always the cause of great evils. Misery is easily excited to anger, and ignorance soon yields to perfidious counsels.

What can be nobler than the idea it gives us of the Supreme Being?

Admiration is a very short lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it still be fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual succession of miracles rising up to its view.

Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.

Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.