Obtuseness is sometimes a virtue.

The modest man has everything to gain, and the arrogant man everything to lose; for modesty has always to deal with generosity, and arrogance with envy.

There is nothing so unready as readiness of wit.

Man spends his life in reasoning on the past, in complaining of the present, in fearing future.

The most civilized people are as near to barbarism as the most polished steel is to rust. Nations, like metals, have only a superficial brilliancy.

True felicity consists of its own consciousness.

Rumor, once started, rushes on like a river, until it mingles with, and is lost in the sea.