The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England.

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.

Vanity is so frequently the apparent motive of advice, that we, for the most part, summon our powers to oppose it without any very accurate inquiry whether it is right.

A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.

The insolence of wealth will creep out.

It is natural for every man uninstructed to murmur at his condition, because, in the general infelicity of life, he feels his own miseries without knowing that they are common to all the rest of the species; and, therefore, though he will not be less sensible of pain by being told that others are equally tormented, he will at least be freed from the temptation of seeking, by perpetual changes, that ease which is no where to be found, and though his diseases still continue, he escapes the hazard of exasperating it by remedies.

There is no kind of idleness by which we are so easily seduced as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business.