Life is the art of being well deceived; and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habitual and uninterrupted.

I can enjoy society in a room; but out of doors, nature is company enough for me

The greatest pleasure in life is that of reading while we are young. I have had as much of this pleasure perhaps as any one.

A great man la an abstraction of some one excellence; but whoever fancies himself an abstraction of excellence, so far from being great, may be sure that he is a blockhead, equally ignorant of excellence or defect of himself or others.

Grace has been defined as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.

Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a god-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart than revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.

There is a quiet repose and steadiness about the happiness of age, if the life has been well spent. Its feebleness is not painful. The nervous system has lost its acuteness. But, in mature years we feel that a burn, a scald, a cut, is more tolerable than it was in the sensitive period of youth.