The grateful person fears no court or judge, no sentence or executioner, but what he carries about him in his own breast: and being still the most severe exactor of himself, not only confesses but proclaims his debts.

It is the work of fancy to enlarge, but of judgment to shorten and contract; and therefore this must be as far above the other as judgment is a greater and nobler faculty than fancy or imagination.

He who has no mind to trade with the Devil should be so wise as to keep from his shop.

Flints may be melted - we see it daily - but an ungrateful heart cannot be; not by the strongest and noblest flame.

Much reading is like much eating -wholly useless without digestion.

He who does a kindness to an ungrateful person, sets his seal to a flint and sows his seed upon the sand; on the former he makes no impression, and from the latter finds no product.

Folly enlarges men's desires while it lessens their capacities.