Some have little power to do good, and have likewise little strength to resist evil.

One cause, which is not always observed, of the insufficiency of riches, is that they very seldom make their owner rich.

The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment.

All unnecessary vows are folly, because they suppose a prescience of the future, which has not been given us.

When the eye or the imagination is struck with an uncommon work, the next transition of an active mind is to the means by which it was performed

Fear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil but its duty, like that of other passions, is not to overbear reason, but to assist it. It should not be suffered to tyrannize in the imagination, to raise phantoms of horror, or to beset life with supernumerary distresses.

Life, to be worthy of a rational being, must be always in progression; we must always purpose to do more or better than in time past.