Old age is not one of the beauties of creation, but it is one of its harmonies. The law of contrasts is one of the laws of beauty. Under the conditions of our climate, shadow gives light its worth; sternness enhances mildness; solemnity, splendor. Varying proportions of size support and subserve one another.

The most culpable of the excesses of Liberty is the harm she does herself.

The symptoms of compassion and benevolence, in some people, are like those minute guns which warn you that you are in deadly peril.

Prayer has a right to the word "ineffable." It is an hour of outpourings which words cannot express,--of that interior speech which we do not articulate, even when we employ it.

Consolation heaps without contact; somewhat like the blessed air which we need but to breathe.

America has begun her career at the culminating point of life, as Adam did at the age of thirty.

The very might of the human intellect reveals its limits.