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

There is no doubt such a thing as chance, but I see no reason why Providence should not make use of it.

We must calculate not on the weather, nor on fortune, but upon God and ourselves. He may fail us in the gratification of our wishes, but never in the encounter with our exigencies.

Tears are the natural penalties of pleasure. It is a law that we should pay for all that we enjoy.

I know not that there is anything in nature more soothing to the mind than the contemplation of the moon, sailing, like some planetary bark, amidst a sea of bright azure. The subject is certainly hackneyed; the moon has been sung by poet and poetaster. Is there any marvel that it should be so?

Vanity is so constantly solicitous of self, that even where its own claims are not interested, it indirectly seeks the aliment which it loves, by showing how little is deserved by others.

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