All that philosophy can teach is to be stubborn or sullen under misfortunes.

An Englishman fears contempt more than death.

Friendship is made up of esteem and pleasure; pity is composed of sorrow and contempt: the mind may for some time fluctuate between them, but it can never entertain both at once.

A great source of calamity lies in regret and anticipation; therefore a person is wise who thinks of the present alone, regardless of the past or future.

Write how you want, the critic shall show the world you could have written better.

Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the least manageable and the most likely to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones.

Politics resemble religion; attempting to divest either of ceremony is the most certain mode of bringing either into contempt.