We seldom require more to the happiness of the present hour than to surpass him that stands next before us.

When emulation leads us to strive for self-elevation by merit alone, and not by belittling another, then it is one of the grandest possible incentives to action.

Peevishness may be considered the canker of life, that destroys its vigor and checks its improvement; that creeps on with hourly depredations, and taints and vitiates what it cannot consume.

The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne.

This mournful truth is everywhere confessed, slow rises worth by poverty depressed.

It is true that of far the greater part of things, we must content ourselves with such knowledge as description may exhibit, or analogy supply; but it is true likewise, that these ideas are always incomplete, and that at least, till we have compared them with realities, we do not know them to be just. As we see more, we become possessed of more certainties, and consequently gain more principles of reasoning, and found a wider base of analogy.

The equity of Providence has balanced peculiar sufferings with peculiar enjoyments.