It is better to have wisdom without learning than learning without wisdom.

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

It is always easy to shut a book, but not quite so easy to get rid of a lettered coxcomb.

Men of strong minds and who think for themselves, should not be discouraged on finding occasionally that some of their best ideas have been anticipated by former writers; they will neither anathematize others nor despair themselves. They will rather go on discovering things before discovered, until they are rewarded with a land hitherto unknown, an empire indisputably their own, both right of conquest and of discovery.

The greatest miracle that the Almighty could perform would be to make a bad man happy, even in heaven; he must unparadise that blessed place to accomplish it. In its primary signification, all vice--that is, all excess--brings its own punishment even here.

When certain persons abuse us, let us ask ourselves what description of characters it is that they admire; we shall often find this a very consolatory question.

Fashions smile has given wit to dullness and grace to deformity, and has brought everything into vogue, by turns, but virtue.