He that will often put eternity and the world before him, and who will dare to look steadfastly at both of them, will find that the more often he contemplates them, the former will grow greater, and the latter less.

Honor is unstable and seldom the same; for she feeds upon opinion, and is as fickle as her food.

From its very inaction, idleness ultimately becomes the most active cause of evil; as a palsy is more to be dreaded than a fever. The Turks have a proverb which says that the devil tempts all other men, but that idle men tempt the devil.

To be satisfied with the acquittal of the world, though accompanied with the secret condemnation of conscience, this is the mark of a little mind; but it requires a soul of no common stamp to be satisfied with its own acquittal, and to despise the condemnation of the world.

Insults are engendered from vulgar minds, like toadstools from a dunghill.

Sensibility would be a good portress if she had but one hand; with her right she opens the door to pleasure, but with her left to pain.

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