The maxims of Christian life, which should draw upon the truths of the Gospel, are always partially symbolic of the mind and temperament of those who teach them to us. The former, by their natural sweetness, show us the quality of God's mercy; the latter, by their harshness, show us God's justice.

When High and Mighty people want to make us believe that they possess some good quality which they in fact do not have, it is dangerous to show that you doubt them; because, by removing their hope of deceiving the world, you also remove their desire to perform the good acts that might have arisen from their very pretensions.

All the great amusements are dangerous for the Christian life.

Social intercourse, even friendship among most people, is a merely a business arrangement that lasts only so long as there is need.

To be too dissatisfied with ourselves is a weakness. To be too satisfied with ourselves is a stupidity.

It is neither a great praise nor a great blame when people say a tendency is in or out of fashion. If a tendency is as it should be at one time, it is always as it should be.

Sometimes we praise the way things used to be in order to blame the present, and we esteem what is no longer in order to scorn what is.