Grief, which disposes gentle natures to retirement, to inaction, and to meditation, only makes restless spirits more restless.

The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn.

Finesse is the best adaptation of means to circumstances.

The hearts of men are their books; events are their tutors; great actions are their eloquence.

The real security of Christianity is to be found in its benevolent morality, in its exquisite adaptation to the human heart, in the facility with which its scheme accommodates itself to the capacity of every human intellect, in the consolation which it bears to the house of mourning, in the light with which it brightens the great mystery of the grave.

The desire of posthumous fame and the dread of posthumous reproach and execration are feelings from the influence of which scarcely any man is perfectly free, and which in many men are powerful and constant motives of action.

In perseverance, in self command, in forethought, in all virtues which conduce to success in life, the Scots have never been surpassed.