The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.

The man of pleasure, by a vain attempt to be more happy than any man can be, is often more miserable than most men are.

The most notorious swindler has not assumed so many names as self-love, nor is so much ashamed of his own. She calls herself patriotism, when at the same time she is rejoicing at just as much calamity to her native country as will introduce herself into power, and expel her rivals.

If you are under obligations to many, it is prudent to postpone the recompensing of one, until it be in your power to remunerate all; otherwise you will make more enemies by what you give, than by what you withhold.

There are both dull correctness and piquant carelessness; it is needless to say which will command the most readers and have the most influence.

God is on the side of virtue; for whoever dreads punishment suffers it, and whoever deserves it, dreads it .

No two things differ more than hurry and dispatch. Hurry is the mark of a weak mind, dispatch of a strong one. A weak man in office, like a squirrel in a cage, is laboring eternally, but to no purpose, and is in constant motion without getting on a job; like a turnstile, he is in everybody's way, but stops nobody; he talks a great deal, but says very little; looks into everything but sees nothing; and has a hundred irons in the fire, but very few of them are hot, and with those few that are, he only burns his fingers.