There is not, perhaps, to a mind well instructed, a more painful occurrence, than the death of one we have injured without reparation.
The belief of immortality is impressed upon all men, and all men act under an impression of it, however they may talk, and though, perhaps, they may be scarcely sensible of it.
Life protracted is protracted woe.
No man is obliged to do as much as he can do. A man is to have part of his life to himself.
With what hope can we endeavor to persuade the ladies that the time spent at the toilet is lost in vanity.
Keeping accounts, sir, is of no use when a man is spending his own money, and has nobody to whom he is to account. You won’t eat less beef today because you have written down what it cost yesterday.
Memory is like all other human powers, with which no man can be satisfied who measures them by what he can conceive, or by what he can desire.
Politeness is fictitious benevolence.
If a man is in doubt whether it would be better for him to expose himself to martyrdom or not, he should not do it. He must be convinced that he has a delegation from heaven.
In the motive lies the good or ill.
Pain and disease awaken us to convictions which are necessary to our moral condition.
The natural progress of the works of men is from rudeness to convenience, from convenience to elegance, and from elegance to nicety.
Is not a patron one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?
Mutual cowardice keeps us in peace.
Poverty has, in large cities, very different appearances; it is often concealed in splendour, and often in extravagance.
About things on which the public thinks long it commonly attains to think right.
People in distress never think that you feel enough.
We may have uneasy feelings for seeing a creature in distress without pity; for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them.
A blade of grass is always a blade of grass, whether in one country or another.
Read the book you do honestly feel a wish and curiosity to read.