Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.

The admiration of power in others is as common to man as the love of it in himself; the one makes him a tyrant, the other a slave.

The devil was a great loss in the preternatural world. He was always something to fear and to hate; he supplied the antagonist powers of the imagination, and the arch of true religion hardly stands firm without him.

To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind.

I hate to be near the sea, and to hear it roaring and raging like a wild beast in its den. It puts me in mind of the everlasting efforts of the human mind, struggling to be free, and ending just where it began.

Cowardice is not synonymous with prudence. It often happens that the better part of discretion is valor.

It may be made a question whether men grow wiser as they grow older, anymore than they grow stronger or healthier or honest.