To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquillity in our conduct.

Saying is one thing and doing is another; we are to consider the sermon and the preacher distinctly and apart.

I do not know whether I would not like much better to have produced one perfectly formed child by intercourse with the muses than by intercourse with my wife.

It needs good management to enjoy life. I enjoy it twice as much as others, for the measure of enjoyment depends on the greater or less attention that we give to it...The shorter my possession of life the deeper and fuller I must make it.

Why did I love her? Because it was her; because it was me.

Make your educational laws strict and your criminal ones can be gentle; but if you leave youth its liberty you will have to dig dungeons for ages.

Repentance is no other than a recanting of the will, and opposition to our fancies, which lead us which way they please.