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

The Grecian’s maxim would indeed be a sweeping clause in Literature; it would reduce many a giant to a pygmy; many a speech to a sentence; and many a folio to a primer.

An act by which we make one friend and one enemy is a losing game; because revenge is a much stronger principle than gratitude

Expect not praise without envy until you are dead.

We should have all our communications with men, as in the presence of God; and with God, as in the presence of men.

Avarice begets more vices than Priam did children and like Priam survives them all. It starves its keeper to surfeit those who wish him dead, and makes him submit to more mortifications to lose heaven than the martyr undergoes to gain it.

Total freedom from error is what none of us will allow to our neighbors; however we may be inclined to flirt a little with such spotless perfection ourselves.