in came ... a baby, eloquent as infancy usually is, and like most youthful orators, more easily heard than understood.

The truth is, we like to talk over our disasters, because they are ours; and others like to listen, because they are not theirs.

There is no existence so content as that whose present is engrossed by employment, and whose future is filled by some strong hope, the truth of which is never proved. Toil and illusion are the only secrets to make life tolerable.

it is a curious fact, but one which all experience owns, that people do not desire so much to appear better, as to appear different from what they really are.

ingratitude is the necessary consequence of receiving favors of which we are ashamed.

Confidence is its own security.

How beautiful, buoyant, and glad is morning! The first sunshine on the leaves: the first wind, laden with the first breath of the flowers—that deep sigh with which they seem to waken from sleep; the first dew, untouched even by the light foot of the early hare; the first chirping of the rousing birds, as if eager to begin song and flight; all is redolent of the strength given by rest, and the joy of conscious life.