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

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

No doubt solitude is wholesome, but so is abstinence after a surfeit. The true life of man is in society.

Not in sorrow freely is never to open the bosom to the sweets of the sunshine.

Neither praise nor blame is the object of true criticism. Justly to discriminate, firmly to establish, wisely to prescribe and honestly to award - these are the true aims and duties of criticism.

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.

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