A mediocre speech supported by all the power of delivery will be more impressive than the best speech unaccompanied by such power.

The prosperous can not easily form a right idea of misery.

The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body.

One thing, however, I must premise, that without the assistance of natural capacity, rules and precepts are of no efficacy.

Our minds are like our stomaches; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.

For all the best teachers pride themselves on having a large number of pupils and think themselves worthy of a bigger audience.

In a crowd, on a journey, at a banquet even, a line of thought can itself provide its own seclusion.