He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads.

Diffidence is the better part of knowledge.

Miss Edgeworth and Mme. de Stael have proved that there is no sex in style; and Mme. la Roche Jacqueline, and the Duchesse d'Angouleme have proved that there is no sex in courage.

In order to try whether a vessel be leaky, we first prove it with water before we trust it with wine.

It is sufficiently humiliating to our nature to reflect that our knowledge is but as she rivulet, our ignorance as the sea. On points of the highest interest, the moment we quit the light of revelation we shall find that Platonism itself is intimately connected with Pyrrhonism, and the deepest inquiry with the darkest doubt.

There are some men who are fortune's favorites, and who, like cats, light forever on their legs.

Avarice has ruined more souls than extravagance.