The present is an edifice which God cannot rebuild.

Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book.

A weed is a plant whose virtue is not yet known.

The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers.

If your friend has displeased you, you shall not sit down to consider it, for he has already lost all memory of the passage, and has doubled his power to serve you, and, ere you can rise up again, will burden you with blessings.

Great geniuses have the shortest biographies. Their cousins can tell you nothing about them. They lived in their writings, and sotheir house and street life was trivial and commonplace. If you would know their tastes and complexions, the most admiring of their readers most resembles them.

It is one of the beautiful compensations in this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.