Unlike the sun, intellectual luminaries shine brightest after they set.

He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads.

If we look backwards to antiquity it should be as those that are winning a race.

From its very inaction, idleness ultimately becomes the most active cause of evil; as a palsy is more to be dreaded than a fever. The Turks have a proverb which says that the devil tempts all other men, but that idle men tempt the devil.

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.

If it be true that men of strong imaginations are usually dogmatists--and I am inclined to think it is so--it ought to follow that men of weak imaginations are the reverse; in which case we should have some compensation for stupidity. But it unfortunately happens that no dogmatist is more obstinate or less open to conviction than a fool.

Light, whether it be material or moral, is the best reformer.