A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue but the parent of all the other virtues.

Take from a man his reputation for probity, and the more shrewd and clever he is, the more hated and mistrusted he becomes.

I remember the very thing that I do not wish to; I cannot forget the things I wish to forget.

I look upon the pleasure which we take in a garden as one of the most innocent delights in human life. . . It gives us a great insight into the contrivance and wisdom of Nature, and suggests innumerable subjects for meditation.

The avarice of the old: it's absurd to increase one's luggage as one nears the journey's end.

Read at every wait; read at all hours; read within leisure; read in times of labor; read as one goes in; read as one goest out. The task of the educated mind is simply put: read to lead.

The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs.