An ingenious mind feels in unmerited praise the bitterest reproof.

What is reading but silent conversation?

Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose their direction and begin to bend.

Solitude is the audience-chamber of God.

We fancy that our afflictions are sent us directly from above; sometimes we think it in piety and contrition, but oftener in moroseness and discontent.

Politeness is not always a sign of wisdom; but the want of it always leaves room for a suspicion of folly, if folly and imprudence are the same.

Nations, like individuals, interest us in their growth.