Of present fame think little, and of future less; the praises that we receive after we are buried, like the flowers that are strewed over our grave, may be gratifying to the living, but they are nothing to the dead.

It is the briefest yet wisest maxim which tells us to meddle not.

If martyrdom is now on the decline, it is not because martyrs are less zealous, but because martyr-mongers are more wise. The light of intellect has put out the fire of persecution, as other fires are observed to smoulder before the light of the same.

Men of great and shining qualities do not always succeed in life, but the fault lies more often in themselves than in others.

The inheritance of a distinguished and noble name is a proud inheritance to him who lives worthily of it.

In death itself there can be nothing terrible, for the act of death annihilates sensation; but there are many roads to death, and some of them justly formidable, even to the bravest.

Folly disgusts us less by her ignorance than pedantry by her learning.