Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness when bequeathed by those who, even alive, would part with nothing.

"Lawyers Are": The only civil delinquents whose judges must of necessity be chosen from (amongst) themselves.

There is a holy love and a holy rage, and our best virtues never glow so brightly as when our passions are excited in the cause. Sloth, if it has prevented many crimes, has also smothered many virtues; and the best of us are better when roused.

If you cannot avoid a quarrel with a blackguard, let your lawyer manage it, rather than yourself. No man sweeps his own chimney, but employs a chimney-sweeper, who has no objection to dirty work, because it is his trade.

The further we advance in knowledge, the more simplicity shall we discover in those primary rules that regulate all the apparently endless, complicated, and multiform operations of the Godhead.

Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.

With books, as with companions, it is of more consequence to know which to avoid, than which to choose; for good books are as scarce as good companions...