We so love all new and unusual things that we even derive a secret pleasure from the saddest and most tragic events, both because of their novelty and because of the natural malignity that exists within us.

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.

It is vain and useless to survey everything that goes on in the world if our study does not help us mend our ways.

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.

Mean-spirited mediocrities, especially those with a smattering of learning, are the most likely to be opinionated. Only strong minds know how to correct their opinions and abandon a bad position.

It is an admirable skill to able to sweeten a refusal with civil words which atone for the favor which we are not able to grant.

We need not regard what good a friend has done us, but only his desire to do us good.