Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.

Presumption will be easily corrected; but timidity is a disease of the mind more obstinate and fatal.

We ought not to raise expectations which it is not in our power to satisfy.-It is more pleasing to see smoke brightening into flame, than flame sinking into smoke.

Plenty is the original cause of many of our needs; and even the poverty, which is so frequent and distressful in civilized nations, proceeds often from that change of manners which opulence has produced. Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries; but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

The faults of a man loved or honoured sometimes steal secretly and imperceptibly upon the wise and virtuous, but by injudicious fondness or thoughtless vanity are adopted with design.

Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.