There are many that despise half the world; but if there be any that despise the whole of it, it is because the other half despises them.

There are only two things in which the false professors of all religions have agreed--to persecute all other sects and to plunder their own.

Sometimes the greatest adversities turn out to be the greatest blessings.

Shakespeare, Butler and Bacon have rendered it extremely difficult for all who come after them to be sublime, witty or profound.

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

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.

It is more easy to forgive the weak who have injured us than the powerful whom we have injured.