A few books, well-chosen and well-made use of, will be more profitable than a great, confused Alexandrian library.
He that has a great nose, thinks everybody is speaking of it.
If you command wisely, you’ll be obeyed cheerfully.
Pride perceiving humility honorable, often borrows her cloak.
Unseasonable kindness gets no thanks.
A fox should not be on the jury at a goose’s trial.
Leftovers in their less visible form are called memories. Stored in the refrigerator of the mind and the cupboard of the heart.
Men are more prone to revenge injuries than to requite kindness.
A drinker has a hole under his nose that all his money runs into.
Despair gives courage to a coward.
Few are fit to be entrusted with themselves.
A forced kindness deserves no thanks.
Praise makes good Men better, and bad Men worse.
Tis better for thee to be wise and not seem so, than to seem wise and not be so: Yet Men, for the most Part, desire and endeavor the contrary.
When thou shewest Respect to any one, see that thy Submissions be proportionable to the Homage thou owest him. There is Stupidity and Pride in doing too little; but in over acting of it, there is Abjection and Hypocrisy.
Always tell the Truth : where it is not loved, it is respected and feared.
Custom is the Guide of the Ignorant.
Thou mayst as well expect to grow stronger by always eating as wiser by always reading. Too much overcharges nature, and turns more into disease than nourishment. ‘Tis thought and digestion which make books serviceable, and give health and vigor to the mind.
If any one giveth thee excessive Praises more than can handsomely belong to thee, thou art to think of him, that he taketh thee for vain and credulous, and easy to be deceived, and effectually a Fool.
Men apt to promise, are apt to forget.
Nothing costs so much as what is given us.