How many thousands ... earnestly seeking what they do not want, while they neglect the real blessings in their possession -- I mean the innocent gratification of their senses, which is all we can properly call our own.

A man that is ashamed of passions that are natural and reasonable is generally proud of those that are shameful and silly.

It is the common error of builders and parents to follow some plan they think beautiful (and perhaps is so) without considering that nothing is beautiful that is misplaced.

People wish their enemies dead - but I do not; I say give them the gout, give them the stone!

Satire should, like a polished razor keen, Wound with a touch that's scarcely felt or seen.

I have all my life been on my guard against the information conveyed by the sense of hearing -- it being one of my earliest observations, the universal inclination of humankind is to be led by the ears, and I am sometimes apt to imagine that they are given to men as they are to pitchers, purposely that they may be carried about by them.

Only a mother knows a mother's fondness.