What is right or duty without power? To tell a man it is his duty to submit his judgment to the judgment of the church, is like telling a wife it is … - James Anthony Froude

Life is change, to cease to change is to cease to live; yet if you may shed a tear beside the death-bed of an old friend, let not your heart be silent on the dissolving of a faith.

Our characters change as world eras change, as our features change, slowly from day to day. Nothing is sudden in this world. Inch hy inch; drop by drop; line by line. Even when great convulsions shatter down whole nations, cities, monarchies, systems, human fortunes, still they are but the finish, the last act of the same long preparing, slowly devouring change, in which the tide of human affairs for ever ebbs and flows, without haste, and without rest.

The trials of life will not wait for us. They come at their own time, not caring much to inquire how ready we may be to meet them.