Stagnation is something worse than death. It is corruption, also.

No doubt solitude is wholesome, but so is abstinence after a surfeit. The true life of man is in society.

The only true source of politeness is consideration,--that vigilant moral sense which never loses sight of the rights, the claims, and the sensibilities of others. This is the one quality, over all others, necessary to make a gentleman.

Our true acquisitions lie only in our charities - we gain only as we give.

Ambition is frequently the only refuge which life has left to the denied or mortified affections. We chide at the grasping eye, the daring wing, the soul that seems to thirst for sovereignty only, and know not that the flight of this ambitious bird has been from a bosom or home that is filled with ashes.

The effect of character is always to command consideration. We sport and toy and laugh with men or women who have none, but we never confide in them.

Vanity may be likened to the smooth-skinned and velvet-footed mouse, nibbling about forever in expectation of a crumb; while self-esteem is too apt to take the likeness of the huge butcher's dog, who carries off your steaks, and growls at you as be goes.