A great mind is one that can forget or look beyond itself.
The way to procure insults is to submit to them. A man meets with no more respect than he exacts.
No wise man can have a contempt for the prejudices of others; and he should even stand in a certain awe of his own, as if they were aged parents and monitors. They may in the end prove wiser than he.
To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind.
Vice, like disease, floats in the atmosphere.
The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.
Life is the art of being well deceived; and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habitual and uninterrupted.
Persons who undertake to pry into, or cleanse out all the filth of a common sewer, either cannot have very nice noses, or will soon lose them.
Prejudice is the child of ignorance.
If the world were good for nothing else, it is a fine subject for speculation.
As is our confidence, so is our capacity.
Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity.
The dupe of friendship, and the fool of love; have I not reason to hate and to despise myself? Indeed I do; and chiefly for not having hated and despised the world enough.
Defoe says that there were a hundred thousand country fellows in his time ready to fight to the death against popery, without knowing whether popery was a man or a horse.
Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end. There was a time when we were not: this gives us no concern. Why, then, should it trouble us that a time will come when we shall cease to be?
The more we do, the more we can do.
Grace has been defined as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.
Just as much as we see in others we have in ourselves.
If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory.
The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.