Disease generally begins that equality which death completes; the distinctions which set one man so much above another are very little perceived in the gloom of a sick chamber, where it will be vain to expect entertainment from the gay, or instruction from the wise; where all human glory is obliterated, the wit is clouded, the reasoner perplexed, and the hero subdued; where the highest and brightest of mortal beings finds nothing left him but the consciousness of innocence.

Riches are of no value in themselves; their use is discovered only in that which they procure.

There must always be some advantage on one side or the other, and it is better that advantage should be had by talents than by chance.

A man with a good coat upon his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one.

The stream of Time, which is continually washing the dissoluble fabrics of other poets, passes without injury by the adamant of Shakespeare.

To hear complaints is wearisome alike to the wretched and the happy.

An infallible characteristic of meanness is cruelty.