Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates.

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life. It is only found in men of sound sense and understanding.

They who, without any previous knowledge of us, think amiss of us, do us no harm; they attack not us, but the phantom of their own imagination.

What is certain in death is somewhat softened by what is uncertain; it is an indefiniteness in the time, which holds a certain relation to the infinite, and what is called eternity.

Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author.

A lovely countenance is the fairest of all sights, and the sweetest harmony is the sound of the voice of her whom we love.

People reveal their character even in the simplest things they do. Fools do not enter a room, nor leave it, nor sit down, nor rise, nor are they silent, nor do they stand up, like people of sense and understanding.