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.

'Tis a sort of duty to be rich, that it may be in one's power to do good, riches being another word for power.

Only a mother knows a mother's fondness.

The knowledge of numbers is one of the chief distinctions between us and the brutes.

In short I will part with anything for you but you.

There is nothing can pay one for that invaluable ignorance which is the companion of youth, those sanguine groundless hopes, and that lively vanity which makes all the happiness of life.

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