Every man should study conciseness in speaking; it is a sign of ignorance not to know that long speeches, though they may please the speaker, are the torture of the hearer.

All men will be Peters in their bragging tongue, and most men will be Peters in their base denial; but few men will be Peters in their quick repentance.

Zeal without humanity is like a ship without a rudder, liable to be stranded at any moment

We pick our own sorrows out of the joys of other men, and from their sorrows likewise we derive our joys.

Perfection is immutable. But for things imperfect change is the way to perfect them. It gets the name of wilfulness when it will not admit of a lawful change to the better. Therefore constancy without knowledge cannot be always good. In things ill it is not virtue, but an absolute vice.

Vice is a peripatetic, always in progression.

A combed writing will cost both sweat and the rubbing of the brain. And combed I wish it, not frizzled or curled.