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.

The dread of criticism is the death of genius.

Our possessions are wholly in our performances. He owns nothing to whom the world owes nothing.

Genius is the very eye of intellect and the wing of thought; it is always in advance of its time, and is the pioneer for the generation which it precedes.

What we call vice in our neighbor may be nothing less than a crude virtue. To him who knows nothing more of precious stones than he can learn from a daily contemplation of his breastpin, a diamond in the mine must be a very uncompromising sort of stone.

The fool is willing to pay for anything but wisdom. No man buys that of which he supposes himself to have an abundance already.

To feel oppressed by obligation is only to prove that we are incapable of a proper sentiment of gratitude. To receive favors from the unworthy is simply to admit that our selfishness is superior to our pride. Most men remember obligations, but not often to be grateful for them. The proud are made sour by the remembrance and the vain silent.