Are we not like the actor of old times, who wore his mask so long his face took its likeness?

The old proverb, applied to fire and water, may with equal truth be applied to the imagination - it is a good servant, but a bad master.

We might have been - these are but common words, and yet they make the sum of life's bewailing.

Ignorance, far more than idleness, is the mother of all the vices; and how recent has been the admission, that knowledge should be the portion of all? The destinies of the future lie in judicious education; an education that must be universal, to be beneficial.

he who seeks pleasure with reference to himself, not others, will ever find that pleasure is only another name for discontent.

I think hearts are very much like glasses. If they do not break with the first ring, they usually last a considerable time.

though fortune's wheel is generally on the turn, sometimes when it gets into the mud, it sticks there.