Life often presents us with a choice of evils, rather than of goods.

The upright, if he suffer calumny to move him, fears the tongue of man more than the eye of God.

Silence is less injurious than a weak reply.

Afflictions sent by providence melt the constancy of the noble minded, but confirm the obduracy of the vile, as the same furnace that liquefies the gold, hardens the clay Charles Caleb Colton.

Living authors, therefore, are usually, bad companions. If they have not gained character, they seek to do so by methods often ridiculous, always disgusting; and if they have established a character, they are silent for fear of losing by their tongue what they have acquired by their pen--for many authors converse much more foolishly than Goldsmith, who have never written half so well.

He [the miser] falls down and worships the god of this world, but will have neither its pomps, its vanities nor its pleasures for his trouble.

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