The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.

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.

Talent is the capacity of doing anything that depends on application and industry and it is a voluntary power, while genius is involuntary.

It is easier taking the beaten path than making our way over bogs and precipices. The great difficulty in philosophy is to come to every question with a mind fresh and unshackled by former theories, though strengthened by exercise and information.

Hope is the best possession. None are completely wretched but those who are without hope. Few are reduced so low as that.

We are thankful for good-will rather than for services, for the motive than the quantum of favor received.

Mankind are a herd of knaves and fools. It is necessary to join the crowd, or get out of their way, in order not to be trampled to death by them.