If all our wishes were gratified, most of our pleasures would be destroyed.

Falsehood, like the dry-rot, flourishes the more in proportion as air and light are excluded.

He that is not open to conviction is not qualified for discussion.

The attendant on William Rufus, who discharged at a deer an arrow, which glanced against a tree and killed the king, was no murderer, because he had no such design. And, on the other hand, a man who should lie in wait to assassinate another, and pull the trigger of a gun with that intent, would be morally a murderer, not the less though the gun should chance to miss fire.

Those who relish the study of character may profit by the reading of good works of fiction, the product of well-established authors.

Every instance of a man's suffering the penalty of the law is an instance of the failure of that penalty in effecting its purpose, which is to deter.

Unless people can be kept in the dark, it is best for those who love the truth to give them the full light.