The man who backbites an absent friend, nay, who does not stand up for him when another blames him, the man who angles for bursts of laughter and for the repute of a wit, who can invent what he never saw, who cannot keep a secret -- that man is black at heart: mark and avoid him.

The nearer I approach death the more I feel like one who is in sight of land at last and is about to anchor in one's home port after a long voyage.

Nature has granted the use of life like a loan, without fixing any day for repayment.

There is nothing more shocking than to see assertion and approval dashing ahead of cognition and perception.

Nothing is so great an adversary to those who make it their business to please as expectation.

Lay down this rule of friendship: neither ask nor consent to do what is wrong. The plea, 'for friendship's sake,' is a discreditable one, and should not be admitted for a moment. We should ask from friends and do for friends only what is good.

Law is the highest reason implanted in Nature, which commands what ought to be done and forbids the opposite.