A young fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be; and an old fellow ought to seem wise whether he really be so or not.

If we do not plant knowledge when young, it will give us no shade when we are old.

Men have various subjects in which they may excel, or at least would be thought to excel, and though they love to hear justice done to them where they know they excel, yet they are most and best flattered upon those points where they wish to excel and yet are doubtful whether they do or not.

The mere brute pleasure of reading - the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.

Always make the best of the best, and never make bad worse.

In your friendships and in your enmities let your confidence and your hostilities have certain bounds; make not the former dangerous, nor the latter irreconcilable. There are strange vicissitudes in business.

Civility, which is a disposition to accommodate and oblige others, is essentially the same in every country; but good breeding, asit is called, which is the manner of exerting that disposition, is different in almost every country, and merely local; and every man of sense imitates and conforms to that local good breeding of the place which he is at.