The mind, like all other things, will become impaired, the sciences are its food,--they nourish, but at the same time they consume it.

Incivility is not a Vice of the Soul, but the effect of several Vices; of Vanity, Ignorance of Duty, Laziness, Stupidity, Distraction, Contempt of others, and Jealousy.

There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience.

Extremes are vicious, and proceed from men; compensation is just, and proceeds from God.

False modesty is the masterpiece of vanity: showing the vain man in such an illusory light that he appears in the reputation of the virtue quite opposite to the vice which constitutes his real character; it is a deceit.

One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories.

Pure friendship is something which men of an inferior intellect can never taste.