There is no such thing in man's nature as a settled and full resolve either for good or evil, except at the very moment of execution.

The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may going to prove one's self a fool.

In the depths of every heart, there is a tomb and a dungeon, though the lights, the music, and revelry above may cause us to forget their existence, and the buried ones, or prisoners whom they hide. But sometimes, and oftenest at midnight, those dark receptacles are flung wide open. In an hour like this, when the mind has a passive sensibility, but no active strength; when the imagination is a mirror, imparting vividness to all ideas, without the power of selecting or controlling them; then pray that your grieves may slumber, and the brotherhood of remorse not break their chain.

Nothing gives a sadder sense of decay than this loss or suspension of the power to deal with unaccustomed things, and to keep up with the swiftness of the passing moment. [Speaking of self-posed isolation in old age.]

Nobody will use other people's experience, nor have any of his own till it is too late to use it.

A bodily disease which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part.

Those with whom we can apparently become well acquainted in a few moments are generally the most difficult to rightly know and to understand.