Most men remember obligations, but not often to be grateful; the proud are made sour by the remembrance and the vain silent.

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

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

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.

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.

Most men remember obligations, but not often to be grateful; the proud are made sour by the remembrance and the vain silent.

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.