A minute analysis of life at once destroys that splendor which dazzles the imagination. Whatsoever grandeur can display, or luxury enjoy, is procured by offices of which the mind shrinks from the contemplation. All the delicacies of the table may be traced back to the shambles and the dunghill; all magnificence of building was hewn from the quarry, and all the pomp of ornament dug from among the damps and darkness of the mine.

Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

From ignorance our comfort flows, the only wretched are the wise

Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.

Exercise is labor without weariness.

To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.