Genius begins beautiful works, but only labor finishes them.

A maxim is the exact and noble expression of an important and indisputable truth. Good maxims are the germs of all excellence; when firmly fixed on the memory, they nourish the will.

All disputation makes the mind deaf; and when people are deaf, I am dumb.

When one has too great a dread of what is impending, one feels some relief when the trouble has come.

A man who shows no defect is a fool or a hypocrite, whom we should mistrust. There are defects so bound to fine qualities that they announce them,--defects which it is well not to correct.

To be an agreeable guest one need only enjoy oneself.

You have to be like the pebble in the stream, keeping the grain and rolling along without being dissolved or dissolving anything else.