To dread no eye and to suspect no tongue is the great prerogative of innocence--an exemption granted only to invariable virtue.

Those who will not take the trouble to think for themselves, have always somebody that thinks for them; and the difficulty in writing is to please those from whom others learn to be pleased.

He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.

Being reproached for giving to an unworthy person, Aristotle said, I did not give it to the man, but to humanity.

All violation of established practice implies in its own nature a rejection of the common opinion, a defiance of common censure, and an appeal from general laws to private judgment: he, therefore, who differs form others without apparent advantage, ought not to be angry if his arrogance is punished with ridicule; if those whose example he superciliously overlooks, point him out to derision, and hoot him back again into the common road.

Pity is not natural to man. Children are always cruel. Savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason. We may have uneasy sensations from seeing a creature in distress, without pity; for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them.

Quotation is a good thing, there is a community of thought in it.