Distinction is an eminence that is attained but too frequently at the expense of a fireside.

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

Our cares are the mothers, not only of our charities And virtues, but of our best joys and most cheering and enduring pleasures.

The true law of the race is progress and development. Whenever civilization pauses in the march of conquest, it is overthrown by the barbarian.

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.

The apothegm is the most portable form of Truth.... It is thus that the proverb answers where the sermon fails, as a well-charged pistol will do more execution than a whole barrel of gunpowder idly expended in the air.

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