To make a fine gentleman, several trades are required, but chiefly a barber.
Those who think must govern those that toil.
Fear guides more to their duty than gratitude; for one man who is virtuous from the love of virtue, from the obligation he thinks he lies under to the Giver of all, there are ten thousand who are good only from their apprehension of punishment.
The bounds of a man’s knowledge are easily concealed, if he has but prudence.
An Englishman fears contempt more than death.
I have found by experience that they who have spent all their lives in cities contract not only an effeminacy of habit, but of thinking.
The volumes of antiquity, like medals, may very well serve to amuse the curious, but the works of the moderns, like the current coin of a kingdom, are much better for immediate use.
The little mind who loves itself, will wr’te and think with the vulgar; but the great mind will be bravely eccentric, and scorn the beaten road, from universal benevolence.
Whatever be the motives which induce men to write, – whether avarice or fame, – the country becomes more wise and happy in which they most serve for instructors.
Aspiring beggary is wretchedness itself.
The youth who follows his appetites too soon seizes the cup, before it has received its best ingredients, and by anticipating his pleasures, robs the remaining parts of life of their share, so that his eagerness only produces manhood of imbecility and an age of pain.
While selfishness joins hands with no one of the virtues, benevolence is allied to them all.
Is it that Nature, attentive to the preservation of mankind, increases our wishes to live, while she lessens our enjoyments, and as she robs the senses of every pleasure, equips imag-ination in the spoil?
If the soul be happily disposed, every thing becomes capable of affording entertainment, and distress will almost want a name.
It has been well observed that few are better qualified to give others advice than those who have taken the least of it themselves.
Paltry affectation, strained allusions, and disgusting finery are easily attained by those who choose to wear them; they are but too frequently the badges of ignorance or of stupidity, whenever it would endeavor to please.
The sports of children satisfy the child.
An emperor in his nightcap will not meet with half the respect of an emperor with a crown.
Persecution is a tribute the great must always pay for preeminence.
Trade’s proud empire hastes to swift decay.