Fine conduct is always spontaneous.

The origin of all mankind was the same; it is only a clear and good conscience that makes a man noble, for that is derived from heaven itself.

It is a common thing to screw up justice to the pitch of an injury. A man may be over-righteous, and why not over-grateful, too? There is a mischievous excess that borders so close upon ingratitude that it is no easy matter to distinguish the one from the other; but, in regard that there is good-will in the bottom of it, however distempered; for it is effectually but kindness out of the wits.

Desultory reading is delightful, but to be beneficial, our reading must be carefully directed.

The artist finds a greater pleasure in painting than in having completed the picture.

There is no benefit so large that malignity will not lessen it; none so narrow that a good interpretation will not enlarge it.

Fortune may rob us of our wealth, not of our courage.