Books afford the surest relief in the most melancholy moments.

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.

When we meet with better fare than was expected, the disappointment is overlooked even by the unscrupulous. When we meet with worse than was expected, philosophers alone know how to make it better.

The sluggard is a living insensible.

Wit, to be well defined, must be defined by wit itself; then it will be worth listening to.

Liberal of cruelty are those who pamper with promises; promisers destroy while they deceive, and the hope they raise is dearly purchased by the dependence that is sequent to disappointment.

Family pride entertains many unsocial opinions.