He that would relish success to a purpose should keep his passions cool, and his expectations low; and then it is possible that his fortune might exceed his fancy; for an advantage always rises by surprise; and is almost always doubled by being unlooked for.

True courage is the result of reasoning. A brave mind is always impregnable. Resolution lies more in the head than in the veins, and a just sense of honor and of infamy, of duty and of religion, will carry us farther than all the force of mechanism.

Of all sorts of flattery, that which comes from a solemn character and stands before a sermon is the worst-complexioned. Such commendation is a satire upon the author, makes the text look mercenary, and disables the discourse from doing service.

He that would be a master must draw from the life as well as copy from originals, and join theory and experience together.

Rhetoric is nothing but reason well dressed and argument put in order.

The abuse of a thing is no argument against the use of it.

Prudence is a necessary ingredient in all the virtues, without which they degenerate into folly and excess.