Nothing good bursts forth all at once. The lightning may dart out of a black cloud; but the day sends his bright heralds before him, to prepare the world for his coming.
The virtue of paganism was strength; the virtue of Christianity is obedience.
It is well for us that we are born babies in intellect. Could we understand half what mothers say and do to their infants, we should be filled with a conceit of our own importance, which would render us insupportable through life.
As to the pure all things are pure, even so to the impure all things are impure.
What hypocrites we seem to be whenever we talk of ourselves! Our words sound so humble, while our hearts are so proud.
Since the generality of persons act from impulse, much more than from principle, men are neither so good nor so bad as we are apt to think them.
