There is some virtue in almost every vice, except hypocrisy; and even that, while it is a mockery of virtue, is at the same time a compliment to it.

I like a person who knows his own mind and sticks to it; who sees at once what, in given circumstances, is to be done, and does it.

Any one may mouth out a passage with a theatrical cadence, or get upon stilts to tell his thoughts; but to write or speak with propriety and simplicity is a more difficult task. Thus it is easy to affect a pompous style, to use a word twice as big as the thing you want to express; it is not so easy to pitch upon the very word that exactly fits it.

The greatest reverses of fortune are the most easily borne from a sort of dignity belonging to them.

To impress the idea of power on others, they must be made in some way to feel it.

Every one in a crowd has the power to throw dirt; none out of ten have the inclination.

One truth discovered, one pang of regret at not being able to express it, is better than all the fluency and flippancy in the world.