He is one of those wise philanthropists who, in a time of famine, would vote for nothing but a supply of toothpicks.

. . . if my gossip Report be an honest woman of her word. I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapped ginger or made her neighbors believe she wept for the death of a third husband.

Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after-flavor, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned.

So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found, Among the faithless faithful only he.

Dark Error's other hidden side is truth.

Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.

Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.

The most important thing when ill, is to never lose heart.

Let them hate, so long as they fear.

A lost ounce of gold may be found, a lost moment of time never.

Energy is equal to desire and purpose.

I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts. I am no orator, as Brutus is, But a plain blunt man That love my friend; and that they know full well That gave me public leave to speak of him.

In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes.

Commemoration of John & Henry Venn, Priests, Evangelical Divines, 1813, 1873 When I trouble myself over a trifle, even a trifle confessed -- the loss of some little article, say -- spurring my memory, and hunting the house, not from immediate need, but from dislike of loss; when a book has been borrowed of me and is not returned, and I have forgotten the borrower; and fret over the missing volume, ... is it not time that I lost a few things, when I care for them so unreasonably? This losing of things is the mercy of God: it comes to teach us to let them go. Or have I forgotten a thought that came to me, which seemed of the truth? I keep trying and trying to call it back, feeling a poor man until that thought be recovered -- to be far more lost, perhaps, in a notebook into which I shall never look again to find it! I forget that it is live things that God cares about.

Constant use will wear out anything... especially friends.

I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man I have ever met.

Those who want much, are always much in need; happy the man to whom God gives with a sparing hand what is sufficient for his wants.

Rumor, than which no evil flies more swiftly. She flourishes as she flies, gains strength by mere motion. Small at first and in fear, she soon rises to heaven, Walks upon land and hides her head in the clouds.

Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.

The custom and fashion of today will be the awkwardness and outrage of tomorrow--so arbitrary are these transient laws.