Imperfections would not be half so much taken notice of, if vanity did not make proclamation of them.

If we should cease to be generous and charitable because another is sordid and ungrateful, it would be much in the power of vice to extinguish Christian virtues.

It is not the place, nor the condition, but the mind alone what it compares its situation to that can make anyone happy or miserable. Compare it to something better - result envy, frustration and sadness. Compare it to something worse - relief, gratitude and happiness.

The fairest blossoms of pleasantry thrive best where the sun is not strong enough to scorch, nor the soil rank enough to corrupt.

Pretences go a great way with men that take fair words and magisterial looks for current payment.

There is no opposing brutal force to the stratagems of human reason.

The common people do not judge of vice or virtue by morality or immorality, so much as by the stamp that is set upon it by men of figure.