That which we acquire with the most difficulty we retain the longest; as those who have earned a fortune are usually more careful of it than those who have inherited one.
Theories are private property, but truth is common stock.
It is better to meet danger than to wait for it. He that is on a lee shore, and foresees a hurricane, stands out to sea and encounters a storm to avoid a shipwreck.
He that places himself neither higher nor lower than he ought to do exercises the truest humility.
Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.
That writer does the most who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.
Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind.
A harmless hilarity and a buoyant cheerfulness are not infrequent concomitants of genius; and we are never more deceived than when we mistake gravity for greatness, solemnity for science, and pomposity for erudition.
As no roads are so rough as those that have just been mended, so no sinners are so intolerant as those that have just turned saints.
There is this difference between the two temporal blessings – health and money; money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed; health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied; and this superiority of the latter is still more obvious when we reflec.
We are not more ingenious in searching out bad motives for good actions when performed by others, than good motives for bad actions when performed by ourselves.
There are two principles of established acceptance in morals; first, that self-interest is the mainspring of all of our actions, and secondly, that utility is the test of their value.
Grant graciously what you cannot refuse safely and conciliate those you cannot conquer.
The two most precious things this side of the grave are our reputation and our life. But it is to be lamented that the most contemptible whisper may deprive us of the one, and the weakest weapon of the other.
Imitation is the highest form of flattery.
Our minds are as different as our faces. We are all traveling to one destination: happiness, but few are going by the same road.
Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say.
The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.
We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate them.
Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books.