It is much safer to reconcile an enemy than to conquer him; victory may deprive him of his poison, but reconciliation of his will.

Men are like wine,--not good before the lees of clownishness be settled.

Every man should study conciseness in speaking; it is a sign of ignorance not to know that long speeches, though they may please the speaker, are the torture of the hearer.

Human life has not a surer friend, nor oftentimes a greater enemy, than hope. It is the miserable man's god, which in the hardest gripe of calamity never fails to yield to him beams of comfort. It is the presumptuous man's devil, which leads him a while in a smooth way, and then suddenly breaks his neck.

The irresolute man flecks from one egg to another, so hatches nothing.

How many would die did not hope sustain them.

Vice is a peripatetic, always in progression.