A good, finished scandal, fully armed and equipped, such as circulates in the world, is rarely the production of a single individual, or even of a single coterie. It sees the light in one; is rocked and nurtured in another; is petted, developed, and attains its growth in a third; and receives its finishing touches only after passing through a multitude of hands. It is a child that can count a host of fathers--all ready to disown it.

Piety softens all that courage bears.

Impassioned characters never attain their mark till they have overshot it.

I like people to be saints; but I want them to be first and superlatively honest men.

Men do not go out to meet misfortune as we do. They learn it; and we--we divine it.

Pride dries the tears of anger and vexation; humility, those of grief. The one is indignant that we should suffer; the other calms us by the reminder that we deserve nothing else.

Silence is like nightfall. Objects are lost in it insensibly.