Offended vanity is the great separator in social life.

If you would understand your own age, read the works of fiction produced in it. People in disguise speak freely.

Selfishness, when it is punished by the world, is mostly punished because it is connected with egotism.

Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep away a mist; but by ascending a little, you may often look over it altogether. So it is with our moral improvement: we wrestle fiercely with a vicious habit, which could have no hold upon us if we ascended into a higher moral atmosphere.

Alas! it is not the child but the boy that generally survives in the man.

We are pleased with one who instantly assents to our opinions, but we love a proselyte.

Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labor is immense.