Vanity is so frequently the apparent motive of advice that we, for the most part, summon our powers to oppose it without very accurate inquiry whether it is right. It is sufficient that another is growing great in his own eyes at our expense, and assumes authority over us without our permission; for many would contentedly suffer the consequences of their own mistakes, rather than the insolence of him who triumphs as their deliverer.

Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness.

Wasting a fortune is evaporation by a thousand imperceptible means.

A minute analysis of life at once destroys that splendor which dazzles the imagination. Whatsoever grandeur can display, or luxury enjoy, is procured by offices of which the mind shrinks from the contemplation. All the delicacies of the table may be traced back to the shambles and the dunghill; all magnificence of building was hewn from the quarry, and all the pomp of ornament dug from among the damps and darkness of the mine.

Frugality may be termed the daughter of Prudence, the sister of Temperance, and the parent of Liberty.

A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist who does not love Scotland better than truth.

Poverty has, in large cities, very different appearances; it is often concealed in splendour, and often in extravagance.