No siren did ever so charm the ear of the listener as the listening ear has charmed the soul of the siren.

When you give, therefore, take to yourself no credit for generosity, unless you deny yourself something in order that you may give.

The world knows nothing of its greatest men.

We figure to ourselves The thing we like; and then we build it up, As chance will have it, on the rock or sand,- For thought is tired of wandering o'er the world, And homebound Fancy runs her bark ashore.

Wisdom is corrupted by ambition, even when the quality of the ambition is intellectual. For ambition, even of this quality, is but a form of self-love.

Prodigality is indeed the vice of a weak nature, as avarice is of a strong one; it comes of a weak craving for those blandishments of the world which are easily to be had for money, and which, when obtained, are as much worse than worthless as a harlot's love is worse than none.

Shy and unready men are great betrayers of secrets, for there are few wants more urgent for the moment than the want of something to say.