Some fleeting good, that mocks me with the view.

The soul may be compared to a field of battle, where the armies are ready every moment to encounter. Not a single vice but has a more powerful opponent, and not one virtue but may be overborne by a combination of vices.

The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.

A kind and gentle heart he had, To comfort friends and foes; The naked every day he clad When he put on his clothes.

With disadvantages enough to bring him to humility, a Scotsman is one of the proudest things alive.

The volumes of antiquity, like medals, may very well serve to amuse the curious, but the works of the moderns, like the current coin of a kingdom, are much better for immediate use.

The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.