Mere political reform will not cure the manifold evils which now afflict society. There requires a social reform, a domestic reform, an individual reform.

No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.

The wise man... if he would live at peace with others, he will bear and forbear.

Stothard learned the art of combining colors by closely studying butterflies wings; he would often say that no one knew what he owed to these tiny insects. A burnt stick and a barn door served Wilkie in lieu of pencil and canvas.

All life is a struggle.... Under competition the lazy man is put under the necessity of exerting himself; and if he will not exert himself, he must fall behind. If he do not work, neither shall he eat.

He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.

Men often discover their affinity to each other by the mutual love they have for a book.