Heat and animosity, contest and conflict, may sharpen the wits, although they rarely do; they never strengthen the understanding, clear the perspicacity, guide the judgment, or improve the heart.

I see the rainbow in the sky, the dew upon the grass; I see them, and I ask not why they glimmer or they pass. With folded arms I linger not to call them back; 'twere vain: In this, or in some other spot, I know they'll shine again.

Falsehood is for a season.

Goodness does not more certainly make men happy than happiness makes them good.

We cannot be contented because we are happy, and we cannot be happy because we are contented.

I never did a single wise thing in the whole course of my existence, although I have written many which have been thought so.

Where power is absent we may find the robe of genius, but we miss the throne.