“Are not half our lives spent in reproaches for foregone actions, of the true nature and consequences of which we were wholly ignorant at the time?”

“And the drawing near of Death, which alike levels all, alike impresses all with a last revelation, which only an author from the dead could adequately tell.”

“and yet a child’s utter innocence is but its blank ignorance, and the innocence more or less wanes as intelligence waxes.”

“...flight from tyranny does not of itself insure a safe asylum, far less a happy home.”

“Often ill comes from the good, as good from ill.”

“There are times when even the most potent governor must wink at transgression, in order to preserve the laws inviolate for the future.”

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.”

“A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.”

“Art is the objectification of feeling.”

“In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.”

“He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great.”