But for that blindness which is inseparable from malice, what terrible powers of evil would it possess! Fortunately for the world, its venom, like that of the rattlesnake, when most poisonous, clouds the eye of the reptile, and defeats its aim.

Solitude bears the same relation to the mind that sleep does to the body. It affords it the necessary opportunities for repose and recovery.

No errors of opinion can possibly be dangerous in a country where opinion is left free to grapple with them.

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

Modesty is policy, no less than virtue.

The proverb answers where the sermon fails.

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.