Genius, in one respect, is like gold; numbers of persons are constantly writing about both, who have neither.

We should choose our books as we would our companions, for their sterling and intrinsic merit.

Very great personages are not likely to form very just estimates either of others or of themselves; their knowledge of themselves is obscured by the flattery of others; their knowledge of others is equally clouded by circumstances peculiar to themselves. For in the presence of the great, the modest are sure to suffer from too much diffidence, and the confident from too much display.

The consequences of things are not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that have produced them. Thus the American Revolution, from which little was expected, produced much; but the French Revolution, from which much was expected, produced little.

Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it's set a rolling it must increase.

When certain persons abuse us, let us ask ourselves what description of characters it is that they admire; we shall often find this a very consolatory question.

The victim to too severe a law is considered as a martyr rather than a criminal.