"Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge of thine own cause."

"Be great in act, as you have been in thought."

"Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood."

"Grief is the agony of an instant, the indulgence of grief the blunder of a life."

"Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study."

"The more minimal the art, the more maximum the explanation."

"Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos."

"Say not, when I have leisure I will study; you may not have leisure."

"Of writing well the source and fountainhead is wise thinking."

"Without an adversary prowess shrivels. We see how great and efficient it really is only when it shows by endurance what it is capable of."

"Do not fight verbosity with words: speech is given to all, intelligence to few."

"Think it the greatest impiety to prefer life to disgrace, and for the sake of life to lose the reason for living."

"Ready tears are a sign of treachery, not of grief."

"To have respect for ourselves guides our morals; and to have a deference for others governs our manners."

"A man whose life has been dishonourable is not entitled to escape disgrace in death."

"To someone seeking power, the poorest man is the most useful."

"When we would prepare the mind by a forcible appeal, an opening quotation is a symphony preluding on the chords those tones we are about to harmonize."

"Repentance may begin instantly, but reformation often requires a sphere of years."