It is a noble and great thing to cover the blemishes and excuse the failings of a friend; to draw a curtain before his weaknesses and to display his perfections; to bury his shortcomings in silence but to proclaim his virtues on the housetop.

The seven wise men of Greece, so famous for their wisdom all the world over, acquired all that fame, each of them, by a single sentence consisting of two or three words.

Pain is an outcry of sin.

An Aristotle was but the rubbish of an Adam, and Athens but the rudiments of Paradise.

The grateful person fears no court or judge, no sentence or executioner, but what he carries about him in his own breast: and being still the most severe exactor of himself, not only confesses but proclaims his debts.

Similes prove nothing, but yet greatly lighten and relieve the tedium of argument.

Flints may be melted - we see it daily - but an ungrateful heart cannot be; not by the strongest and noblest flame.