Success seems to be that which forms the distinction between confidence and conceit.

He that dies a martyr proves that he was not a knave, but by no means that he was not a fool.

How strange it is that we of the present day are constantly praising that past age which our fathers abused, and as constantly abusing that present age, which our children will praise.

When all run by common consent into vice, none appear to do so.

Riches may enable us to confer favors, but to confer them with propriety and grace requires a something that riches cannot give.

He that can enjoy the intimacy of the great, and on no occasion disgust them by familiarity, or disgrace himself by servility, proves that he is as perfect a gentleman by nature as his companions are by rank.

The consequences of things are not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that have produced them. Thus the American Revolution, from which little was expected, produced much; but the French Revolution, from which much was expected, produced little.