A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand.

A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand.

Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can't find.

I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.

I never come back home with the same moral character I went out with; something or other becomes unsettled where I had achieved internal peace; some one or other of the things I had put to flight reappears on the scene.

The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.