Gaming has been resorted to by the affluent as a refuge from ennui. It is a mental dram, and may succeed for a moment; but, like all other stimuli, it produces indirect debility.

True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.

Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity himself, than straight forward and simple integrity in another.

The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an empty head than the most superficial declamation; as a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a vacuum.

The art of declamation has been sinking in value from the moment that speakers were foolish enough to publish, and hearers wise enough to read.

None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them; such persons covet secrets as a spendthrift covets money, for the purpose of circulation.

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away.

Let those who would affect singularity with success first determine to be very virtuous, and they will be sure to be very singular.

Atheism is a system which can communicate neither warmth nor illumination, except from those fagots which your mistaken zeal has lighted up for its destruction.

Deliberate with caution, but act with decision and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness.

The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.

It is better to have hope than to be without hope.

The mind is wired by society, the heart is wired by your deepest desires for a blissful life.

I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition.

Who makes quick use of the moment is a genius of prudence.

While it is important to trash the governor, it should be done in the context of regret, sadness and balance.

You should just enjoy it, but as soon as you decide that it is going to be your career, no matter whether you want to be a doctor or an architect or anything else, you need to work 5 hours a day.

One reads alone, even in another's presence.

Harry taught me that death isn't the end, it's the beginning.

The essence of Christianity...is an ever-new encounter with... the God who speaks to us, who approaches us and who befriends us!

I hope to be remembered as someone who made the earth a little more beautiful.