Patience is the most necessary quality for business, many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request.

Little minds mistake little objects for great ones, and lavish away upon the former that time and attention which only the latterdeserve. To such mistakes we owe the numerous and frivolous tribe of insect-mongers, shell-mongers, and pursuers and driers of butterflies, etc. The strong mind distinguishes, not only between the useful and the useless, but likewise between the useful and the curious.

There are some occasions in which a man must tell half his secret, in order to conceal the rest: but there is seldom one in which a man should tell it all.

Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible.

When you have found out the prevailing passion of any man, remember never to trust him where that passion is concerned.

If you will please people, you must please them in their own way; and as you cannot make them what they should be, you must take them as they are.

If originally it was not good for a man to be alone, it is much worse for a sick man to be so; he thinks too much of his distemper, and magnifies it.