Where we cannot invent, we may at least improve.

The hate which we all bear with the most Christian patience is the hate of those who envy us.

We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate them.

When young, we trust ourselves too much, and we trust others too little when old. Rashness is the error of youth, timid caution of age. Manhood is the isthmus between the two extremes; the ripe and fertile season of action, when alone we can hope to find the head to contrive, united with the hand to execute.

Brutes leave ingratitude to man.

None are so seldom found alone, and are so soon tired of their own company, as those coxcombs who are on the best terms with themselves.

Observation made in the cloister or in the desert will generally be as obscure as the one and as barren as the other; but he that would paint with his pencil must study originals, and not be over-fearful of a little dust.