“We should not speak so that it is possible for the audience to understand us, but so that it is impossible for them to misunderstand us.”

Lately we have had many losses.

It is the heart which inspires eloquence.

Where evil habits are once settled, they are more easily broken than mended.

The soul languishing in obscurity contracts a kind of rust, or abandons itself to the chimera of presumption; for it is natural for it to acquire something, even when separated from any one.

While we are making up our minds as to when we shall begin. The opportunity is lost.

When defeat is inevitable, it is wisest to yield.

Our minds are like our stomaches; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.

Though ambition may be a fault in itself, it is often the mother of virtues.

In almost everything, experience is more valuable than precept.

To my mind the boy who gives least promise is one in whom the critical faculty develops in advance of the imagination.

It is worth while too to warn the teacher that undue severity in correcting faults is liable at times to discourage a boy’s mind from effort.

For it would have been better that man should have been born dumb, nay, void of all reason, rather than that he should employ the gifts of Providence to the destruction of his neighbor.

Usage is the best language teacher.

A Woman who is generous with her money is to be praised; not so, if she is generous with her person.

Suffering itself does less afflict the senses than the apprehension of suffering.

By writing quickly we are not brought to write well, but by writing well we are brought to write quickly.