By every remove I only drag a greater length of chain.
Though very poor, may still be very blest.
One man is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and the other with a wooden ladle.
A boy will learn more true wisdom in a public school in a year than by a private education in five. It is not from masters, but from their equals, that youth learn a knowledge of the world.
There is unspeakable pleasure attending the life of a voluntary student.
The soul may be compared to a field of battle, where the armies are ready every moment to encounter. Not a single vice but has a more powerful opponent, and not one virtue but may be overborne by a combination of vices.
Here let me sit in sorrow for mankind.
A silent address is the genuine eloquence of sincerity.
Mortifications are often more painful than real calamities.
The work of eradicating crimes is not by making punishment familiar, but formidable.
Politics resemble religion; attempting to divest either of ceremony is the most certain mode of bringing either into contempt.
Pity, though it may often relieve, is but, at best, a short-lived passion, and seldom affords distress more than transitory assistance; with some it scarce lasts from the first impulse till the hand can be put into the pocket.
Them that asks no questions isn’t told a lie.
A man’s own heart must ever be given to gain that of another.
What real good does an addition to a fortune already sufficient procure? Not any. Could the great man, by having his fortune increased, increase also his appetites, then precedence might be attended with real amusement.
Were I to be angry at men being fools, I could here find ample room for declamation; but, alas! I have been a fool myself; and why should I be angry with them for being something so natural to every child of humanity?
The way to acquire lasting esteem is not by the fewness of a writer’s faults, but the greatness of his beauties, and our noblest works are generally most replete with both.
Error is always talkative.
Taste is the power of relishing or rejecting whatever is offered for the entertainment of the imagination.
If you don’t ask me questions, I can’t give you an untrue answer.