In morals what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness; in religion what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the beginning of all evil.

The only competition worthy a wise man is with himself.

A man may be as much a fool from the want of sensibility as the want of sense.

Accuracy of language is one of the bulwarks of truth.

Childhood sometimes does pay a second visit to man, youth never.

Conversation may be compared to a lyre with seven chords - philosophy, art, poetry, love, scandal, and the weather.

We can sometimes love what we do not understand, but it is impossible completely to understand what we do not love.

What we earnestly aspire to be, that in some sense we are.

All my experience of the world teaches me that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the safe and just side of a question is the generous and merciful side.

What we truly and earnestly aspire to be, that in some sense we are. The mere aspiration, by changing the frame of the mind, for the moment realizes itself.