Humility is the altar upon which God wishes that we should offer Him His sacrifices.
Idleness is more an infirmity of the mind than of the body.
The wind which snuffs the candle fans the fire.
The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it.
The man who leaves a woman best pleased with herself is the one whom she will soonest wish to see.
Satire is at once the most agreeable and most dangerous of mental qualities. It always pleases when it is refined, but we always fear those who use it too much; yet satire should be allowed when unmixed with spite, and when the person satirized can join in the satire.
The prospect of being pleased tomorrow will never console me for the boredom of today.
More men are guilty of treason through weakness than any studied design to betray.
What is perfectly true is perfectly witty.
We endeavor to make a virtue of the faults we are unwilling to correct.
It requires no small degree of ability to know when to conceal one’s ability.
A man often imagines that he acts, when he is acted upon.
Men may boast of their great actions; but they are more often the effects of chance than of design.
The ambitious deceive themselves in proposing an end to their ambition; that end, when attained, becomes a means.
Those who have the most cunning affect all their lives to condemn cunning; that they may make use of it on some great occasion, and to some great end.
For envy, like lightning, generally strikes at the top Or any point which sticks out from the ordinary level. LUCRETIUS, De Rerum Natura Our envy always outlives the felicity of its object.
Old fools are greater fools than young ones.
The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, letter to Joseph Gillespie, July 13, 1849 Friendship is insipid to those who have experienced love.
Though most of the friendships of the world ill deserve the name of friendships; yet a man may make use of them on occasion, as of a traffic whose returns are uncertain, and in which ’tis usual to be cheated.
We take less pains to be happy, than to appear so.