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.

It should console us for the fact that sin has not totally disappeared from the world, that the saints are not wholly deprived of employment.

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

The proverb answers where the sermon fails.

Better that we should err in action than wholly refuse to perform. The storm is so much better than the calm, as it declares the presence of a living principle. Stagnation is something worse than death. It is corruption also.

Tact is one of the first of mental virtues, the absence of which is frequently fatal to the best of talents. Without denying that it is a talent of itself, it will suffice if we admit that it supplies the place of many talents.

Modesty is policy, no less than virtue.