The brightest thunder-bolt is elicited from the darkest storm.
The reason why great men meet with so little pity or attachment in adversity, would seem to be this: the friends of a great man were made by his fortune, his enemies by himself, and revenge is a much more punctual paymaster than gratitude.
It is better to have wisdom without learning than learning without wisdom.
Temperate men drink the most, because they drink the longest.
The true measure of your character is what you do when nobody’s watching.
What would you do if you knew for sure that no one would ever find out?
Is there anything more tedious than the often repeated tales of the old and forgetful?
Those who have finished by making all others think with them, have usually been those who began by daring to think with themselves.
Time, the cradle of hope, but the grave of ambition, is the stern corrector of fools, but the salutary counselor of the wise, bringing all they dread to the one, and all they desire to the other.
Vanity finds in self-love so powerful an ally that it storms, as it were, by a coup de main,, the citadel of our heads, where, having blinded the two watchmen, it readily descends into the heart.
Villains are usually the worst casuists, and rush into crimes to avoid less. Henry VIII. committed murder to avoid the imputation of adultery; and in our times, those who commit the latter crime attempt to wash off the stain of seducing the wife by signifying their readiness to shoot the husband.
We are ruined, not by what we really want, but by what we think we do; therefore never go abroad in search of your wants; if they be real wants, they will come home in search of you; for he that buys what he does not want, will soon want what he cannot buy.
A wise minister would rather preserve peace than gain a victory, because he knows that even the most successful war leaves nations generally more poor, always more profligate, than it found them.
Wars are to the body politic, what drams are to the individual. There are times when they may prevent a sudden death, but if frequently resorted to, or long persisted in, they heighten the energies only to hasten the dissolution.
Wit in women is a jewel, which, unlike all others, borrows lustre from its setting, rather than bestows it; since nothing is so easy as to fancy a very beautiful woman extremely witty.
Women do not transgress the bounds of decorum so often as men; but when they do, they go greater lengths.
Women that are the least bashful are often the most modest.
Words indeed are but the signs and counters of knowledge, and their currency should be strictly regulated by the capital which they represent.
The wealth is ultimately just a relative thing. As a person with little money and little more needs to rich guys money but really wishes.
Expect not praise without envy until you are dead.