Of all the marvelous works of God, perhaps the one angels view with the most supreme astonishment, is a proud man.

Few things are more agreeable to self-love than revenge, and yet no cause so effectually restrains us from revenge as self-love. And this paradox naturally suggests another; that the strength of the community is not unfrequently built upon the weakness of those individuals that compose it.

So blinded are we by our passions, that we suffer more to be damned than to be saved.

That is true beauty which has not only a substance, but a spirit; a beauty that we must intimately know, justly to appreciate.

It is always easy to shut a book, but not quite so easy to get rid of a lettered coxcomb.

Pedantry crams our heads with learned lumber and takes out our brains to make room for it.

Attempts at reform, when they fail, strengthen despotism, as he that struggles tightens those cords he does not succeed in breaking.