Let us not be too prodigal when we are young, nor too parsimonious when we are old. Otherwise we shall fall into the common error of those, who, when they had the power to enjoy, had not the prudence to acquire; and when they had the prudence to acquire, had no longer the power to enjoy.

If a book really wants the patronage of a great name, it is a bad book; and if it be a good book, it wants it not.

He that sympathizes in all the happiness of others, perhaps himself enjoys the safest happiness.

Subtlety will sometimes give safety, no less than strength; and minuteness has sometimes escaped, where magnitude would have been crushed. The little animal that kills the boa is formidable chiefly from its insignificance, which is incompressible by the folds of its antagonist.

Happiness is that single and glorious thing which is the very light and sun of the whole animated universe; and where she is not it were better that nothing should be.

Gold is worshipped in all climates, without a single temple, and by all classes, without a single hypocrite.

To admit that there is any such thing as chance, in the common acceptation of the term, would be to attempt to establish a power independent of God.