When ill news comes too late to be serviceable to your neighbor, keep it to yourself.

We never read without profit if with the pen or pencil in our hand we mark such ideas as strike us by their novelty, or correct those we already possess.

The human mind, in proportion as it is deprived of external resources, sedulously labors to find within itself the means of happiness, learns to rely with confidence on its own exertions, and gains with greater certainty the power of being happy.

Many species of wit are quite mechanical; these are the favorites of witlings, whose fame in words scarce outlives the remembrance of their funeral ceremonies.

Laugh as loud as you please at your companion's wit; do not even smile at his folly.

Who conquers indolence conquers all other hereditary sins.

Many good qualities are not sufficient to balance a single want - the want of money.