That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.

One of the most pernicious effects of haste is obscurity.

Pain is less subject than pleasure to careless expression.

Oratory is the power of beating down your adversary's arguments and putting better in their place.

Read over your compositions and whenever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

Self-love is a busy prompter.

Life consists not of a series of illustrious actions or elegant enjoyments. The greater part of our time passes in compliance with necessities, in the performance of daily duties, in the removal of small inconveniences, in the procurement of petty pleasures; and we are well or ill at ease, as the main stream of life glides on smoothly, or is ruffled by small obstacles and frequent interruption.