Some men are very entertaining for a first interview, but after that they are exhausted, and run out; on a second meeting we shall find them flat and monotonous; like hand-organs, we have heard all their tunes.

We shall at all times chance upon men of recondite acquirements, but whose qualifications, from the incommunicative and inactive habits of their owners, are as utterly useless to others as though the possessors had them not.

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

Ambition makes the same mistake concerning power that avarice makes concerning wealth. She begins by accumulating power as a means to happiness, and she finishes by continuing to accumulate it as an end.

Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.

We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.

Wealth after all is a relative thing since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much and wants more.