Man is an embodied paradox, a bundle of contradictions.

Avarice has ruined more men than prodigality, and the blindest thoughtlessness of expenditure has not destroyed so many fortunes as the calculating but insatiable lust of accumulation.

Memory is the friend of wit, but the treacherous ally of invention; there are many books that owe their success to two things; good memory of those who write them, and the bad memory of those who read them

It is almost as difficult to make a man unlearn his errors as his knowledge.

Fashion is the veriest goddess of semblance and of shade; to be happy is of far less consequence to her worshippers than to appear so; even pleasure itself they sacrifice to parade, and enjoyment to ostentation.

Knavery is supple, and can bend, but honesty is firm and upright and yields not.

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away.