The criterion of true beauty is that it increases on examination; if false, that it lessens.

Man is said to be a rational creature; but should it not rather be said, that man is a creature capable of being rational, as we say a parrot is a creature capable of speech?

The greatest slave in a kingdom is generally the king of it.

Two men are equally free from the rage of ambition; are they therefore equal in merit? Perhaps not; one may be above ambition, the other below it.

We are not slow at discovering the selfishness of others; for this plain reason--because it clashes with our own.

If the human mind naturally produces noisome weeds, it also produces flowers and fruit; and ... the best method to mend the soil in general, is for each of us to cultivate his own particular spot.

It is in numberless instances happier to have a false opinion which we believe true, than a true one of which we doubt.