Few men survey themselves with so much severity as not to admit prejudices in their own favor.

Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled.

The whole power of cunning is privative; to say nothing, and to do nothing , is the utmost of its reach. Yet men, thus narrow by nature and mean by art, are sometimes able to rise by the miscarriages of bravery and the openness of integrity, and, watching failures and snatching opportunities, obtain advantages which belong to higher characters.

There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow.

Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections of their author. To confer duration is not always in our power. We must snatch the present moment, and employ it well, without too much solicitude for the future, and content ourselves with reflecting that our part is performed. He that waits for an opportunity to do much at once, may breathe out his life in idle wishes, and regret, in the last hour, his useless intentions and barren zeal.

We seldom learn the true want of what we have till it is discovered that we can have no more.

Rags will always make their appearance where they have a right to do it.