Some read books only with a view to find fault, while others read only to be taught; the former are like venomous spiders, extracting a poisonous quality, where the latter, like the bees, sip out a sweet and profitable juice.

There is no opposing brutal force to the stratagems of human reason.

What signifies the sound of words in prayer without the affection of the heart, and a sedulous application of the proper means that may naturally lead us to such an end?

Men indulge those opinions and practices that favor their pretensions.

Money does all things,--for it gives and it takes away; it makes honest men and knaves, fools and philosophers; and so forward, mutatis mutandis, to the end of the chapter.

It is not the place, nor the condition, but the mind alone that can make anyone happy or miserable.

He that contemns a shrew to the degree of not descending to words with her does worse than beat her.