Respect is a serious thing in him who feels it, and the height of honor for him who inspires the feeling.

There are minds constructed like the eyes of certain insects, which discern, with admirable distinctness, the most delicate lineaments and finest veins of the leaf which bears them, but are totally unable to take in the ensemble of the plant or shrub. When error has effected an entrance into such minds, it remains there impregnable, because no general view assists them in throwing off the chance impression of the moment.

Life grows darker as we go on, till only one pure light is left shining on it; and that is faith. Old age, like solitude and sorrow, has its revelations.

The root of sanctity is sanity. A man must be healthy before he can be holy. We bathe first, and then perfume.

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

He who has ceased to enjoy his friend's superiority has ceased to love him.

I study much, and the more I study, the oftener I go back to those first principles which are so simple that childhood itself can lisp them.