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

It is a bird-flight of the soul, when the heart declares itself in song. The affections that clothe themselves with wings are passions that have been subdued to virtues.

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.

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 only true source of politeness is consideration.

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.