Monuments may be builded to express the affection or pride of friends, or to display their wealth, but they are only valuable for the characters which they perpetuate.

For honest merit to succeed amid the tricks and intrigues which are now so lamentably common, I know is difficult; but the honor of success is increased by the obstacles which are to be surmounted. Let me triumph as a man or not at all.

If wrinkles must be written on our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old.

I mean to make myself a man, and if I succeed in that, I shall succeed in everything else.

Tortured for the Republic.

You and I are now nearly in middle age, and have not yet become soured and shrivelled with the wear and tear of life. Let us pray to be delivered from that condition where life and nature have no fresh, sweet sensations for us.

Swift defined observation to be an old man's memory.