It is no disgrace not to be able to do everything; but to undertake, or pretend to do, what you are not made for, is not only shameful, but extremely troublesome and vexatious.

Nature and wisdom never are at strife.

It does not follow, that because a particular work of art succeeds in charming us, its creator also deserves our admiration.

Demosthenes, when taunted by Pytheas that all his arguments "smelled of the lamp," replied, "Yes, but your lamp and mine, my friend, do not witness the same labours.

Courage consists not in hazarding without fear; but being resolutely minded in a just cause.

Being conscious of having done a wicked action leaves stings of remorse behind it, which, like an ulcer in the flesh, makes the mind smart with perpetual wounds; for reason, which chases away all other pains, creates repentance, shames the soul with confusion, and punishes it with torment.

No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune.