The secret of achievement is to hold a picture of a successful outcome in mind.

Left to herself, nature is always more or less civilized, and delights in a certain refinement; but where the axe has encroached upon the edge of the forest, the dead and unsightly limbs of the pine, which she had concealed with green banks of verdure, are exposed to sight.

Direct your eye inward, and you'll find / A thousand regions in your mind / Yet undiscovered. Travel them, and be / Expert in home-cosmography

Some show their kindness to the poor by employing them in their kitchens. Would they not be kinder if they employed themselves there?

Pray, for what do we move ever but to get rid of our furniture, our exuviæ; at last to go from this world to another newly furnished, and leave this to be burned?

What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing of the origin and destiny of cats?

Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet.