Advice is like snow; the softer it falls the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.

Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, that itself will need reforming.

Facts are not truths; they are not conclusions; they are not even premises, but in the nature and parts of premises.

How inimitably graceful children are in general -- before they learn to dance.

If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us! But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives us is a lantern on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us!

If you would stand well with a great mind, leave him with a favorable impression of yourself; if with a little mind, leave him with a favorable impression of himself.

Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.

No mind is thoroughly well organized that is deficient in a sense of humor.

Only the wise possess ideas; the greater part of mankind are possessed by them.

Poetry is certainly something more than good sense, but it must be good sense at all events; just as a palace is more than a house, but it must be a house, at least.

Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited; genius, being the action of reason or imagination, rarely or never.

The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions -- the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment.

Who boasts to have won a multitude of friends has ne'er had one.