There are some persons who never succeed from being too indolent to undertake anything; and others who regularly fail, because the instant they find success in their power, they grow indifferent, and give over the attempt.
Virtue steals, like a guilty thing, into the secret haunts of vice and infamy, clings to their devoted victim, and will not be driven quite away. Nothing can destroy the human heart.
Corporate bodies are more corrupt and profligate than individuals, because they have more power to do mischief, and are less amenable to disgrace or punishment. They feel neither shame, remorse, gratitude, nor goodwill.
When we forget old friends, it is a sign we have forgotten ourselves.
Those who have little shall have less, and that those who have much shall take all that others have left.
The number of objects we see from living in a large city amuses the mind like a perpetual raree-show, without supplying it with any ideas.
We judge of others for the most part by their good opinion of themselves; yet nothing gives such offense or creates so many enemies, as that extreme self-complacency or superciliousness of manner, which appears to set the opinion of every one else at defiance.
Love may turn to indifference with possession.
Pride erects a little kingdom of its own, and acts as sovereign in it.
A man in love prefers his passion to every other consideration, and is fonder of his mistress than he is of virtue. Should she prove vicious, she makes vice lovely in his eyes.
Pride goes before a fall, they say, And yet we often find, The folks who throw all pride away Most often fall behind.
Men will die for an opinion as soon as for anything else.
Vanity does not refer to the opinion a man entertains of himself, but to that which he wishes others to entertain of him.
Those who object to wit are envious of it.
Wit is the rarest quality to be met with among people of education, and the most common among the uneducated.
Death puts an end to rivalship and competition. The dead can boast no advantage over us, nor can we triumph over them.
Cowardice is not synonymous with prudence. It often happens that the better part of discretion is valor.
Silence is one great art of conversation. He is not a fool who knows when to hold his tongue; and a person may gain credit for sense, eloquence, wit, who merely says nothing to lessen the opinion which others have of these qualities in themselves.
Repose is as necessary in conversation as in a picture.
There is something captivating in spirit and intrepidity, to which, we often yield as to a resistless power; nor can he reasonably expect, the confidence of others who too apparently distrusts himself.