Of praise a mere glutton, he swallow'd what came, And the puff a dunce, he mistook it for fame; Till his relish grown callous, almost to displease, Who pepper'd the highest was surest to please.

It has been remarked that almost every character which has excited either attention or pity has owed part of its success to merit, and part to a happy concurrence of circumstances in its favor. Had Caesar or Cromwell exchanged countries, the one might have been a sergeant and the other an exciseman.

We seldom speak of the virtue which we have, but much oftener of that which we lack.

Measures, not men, have always been my mark.

The ingratitude of the world can never deprive us of the conscious happiness of having acted with humanity ourselves.

One man is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and the other with a wooden ladle.

[T]here are depths of thousands of miles which are hidden from our inquiry. The only tidings we have from those unfathomable regions are by means of volcanoes, those burning mountains that seem to discharge their materials from the lowest abysses of the earth.