Most books fail, not so much from a want of ability in their authors, as from an absence in their productions of a thorough development of their ability.
Elements of the heroic exist in almost every individual: it is only the felicitous development of them all in one that is rare.
We absolve a friend from gratitude when we remind him of a favor.
It is not the number of facts he knows, but how much of a fact he is himself, that proves the man.
Besides the five senses, there is a sixth sense, of equal importance – the sense of duty.
A particular disappointment is seldom more than an excrescence upon the trunk of a general good – a shower that spoils the pleasure party, but refreshes and enriches the earth.
Life is indeed either a rich possession or a poor, according as it is made subservient to noble aims or ignoble pleasures.
Life being full of harsh realities, we seek relief from them in a variety of pleasing delusions.
None but those who have loved can be supposed to understand the oratory of the eye, the mute eloquence of a look, or the conversational powers of the face. Love’s sweetest meanings are unspoken; the full heart knows no rhetoric of words, and resorts to the pantomime of sighs and glances.
When we get tired of enjoying all the pleasures within our reach, we have still a resource in thinking of others that are not.
There are seaons when our passions have slept so long that we know not whether they still exist in us. So does flax forget that it is combustible when the fire is away from it.
A man cannot paint portraits till he has seen faces.
Our opinions partake, more or less, of the prejudices of our class, party, or sect. We are all largely pledged, through interest, affection, or passion, to particular classes of opinion, and the strength of efforts to get released from these pledges, is the measure of our advancement.
Youth is the season of receptivity, and should be devoted to acquirement; and manhood of power – that demands an earnest application. Old age is for revision.
One must have been, at some time or other, in a situation where a small sum was as necessary almost as life itself, with no more ability to raise it than to raise the dead, before he can fully appreciate the value of money.
Men were created for something better than merely to make money. A close application to business, until a competence is gained, is one of the chief virtues; but to continue in trade long after this result is obtained, is one of the signs, not to be mistaken, of a sordid and ignoble nature.
Successful minds work like a gimlet – to a single point.
Love makes a few weeks so rich that all the rest of our lives seems poor in comparison.
We cannot reason ourselves into love, nor can we reason ourselves out of it, which suggests that love and reason have little to do with each other.
The less the difference, the greater the quarrel over it.
Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and insensibly approximate to the characters we most admire. In this way, a generous habit of thought and of action carries with it an incalculable influence.