He only is exempt from failures who makes no efforts.
Some persons resemble certain trees, such as the nut, which flowers in February and ripens its fruit in September; or the juniper and the arbutus; which take a whole year or more to perfect their fruit; and others, the cherry, which takes between two an three months.
Manners are one of the greatest engines of influence ever given to man.
A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor’s.
It is generally true that all that is required to make men unmindful of what they owe to God for any blessing, is, that they should receive that blessing often and regularly.
It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary.
To be always thinking about your manners is not the way to make them good; the very perfection of manners is not to think about yourself.
There is no right faith in believing what is true, unless we believe it because it is true.
Vices and frailties correct each other, like acids and alkalies. If each vicious man had but one vice, I do not know how the world could go on.
Falsehood, like the dry-rot, flourishes the more in proportion as air and light are excluded.
Fancy, when once brought into religion, knows not where to stop. It is like one of those fiends in old stories which any one could raise, but which, when raised, could never be kept within the magic circle.
The heathen mythology not only was not true, but was not even supported as true; it not only deserved no faith, but it demanded none. The very pretension to truth, the very demand of faith, were characteristic distinctions of Christianity.
It is worth noticing that those who assume an imposing demeanor and seek to pass themselves off for something beyond what they are, are not unfrequently as much underrated by some as overrated by others.
Misgive that you may not mistake.
When men have become heartily wearied of licentious anarchy, their eagerness has been proportionately great to embrace the opposite extreme of rigorous despotism.
A man who gives his children habits of industry provides for them better than by giving them fortune.
Unless people can be kept in the dark, it is best for those who love the truth to give them the full light.
Man is naturally more desirous of a quiet and approving, than of a vigilant and tender conscience – more desirous of security than of safety.
As hardly anything can accidentally touch the soft clay without stamping its mark on it, so hardly any reading can interest a child, without contributing in some degree, though the book itself be afterwards totally forgotten, to form the character.
He that is not open to conviction is not qualified for discussion.