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.

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

The wonder is not that the world is so easily governed, but that so small a number of persons will suffice for the purpose. There are dead weights in political and legislative bodies as in clocks, and hundreds answer as pulleys who would never do for politicians.

The only true source of politeness is consideration.

There is no doubt such a thing as chance, but I see no reason why Providence should not make use of it.

He who would acquire fame must not show himself afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the death of genius.

The proverb answers where the sermon fails.