Merit has rarely risen of itself, but a pebble or a twig is often quite sufficient for it to spring from to the highest ascent. There is usually some baseness before there is any elevation.

The flame of anger, bright and brief, sharpens the barb of love.

Such is our impatience, such our hatred of procrastination, to everything but the amendment of our practices and the adornment of our nature, one would imagine we were dragging Time along by force, and not he us.

Wherever there is excessive wealth, there is also in the train of it excessive poverty.

Authors are like cattle going to a fair: those of the same field can never move on without butting one another.

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

He who brings ridicule to bear against truth finds in his hand a blade without a hilt. The most sparkling and pointed flame of wit flickers and expires against the incombustible walls of her sanctuary.