A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

Instead of rating the man by his performances, we rate too frequently the performances by the man.

Men are most powerfully affected by those evils which themselves feel, or which appear before their own eyes.

Dogs have not the power of comparing. A dog will take a small piece of meat as readily as a large, when both are before him.

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.

Sir, as a man advances in life, he gets what is better than admiration, - judgement, to estimate things at their true value.

It is a common error, and the greater and more mischievous for being so common, to believe that repentance best becomes and most concerns dying men. Indeed, what is necessary every hour of our life is necessary in the hour of death too, and as long as one lives he will have need of repentance, and therefore it is necessary in the hour of death too; but he who hath constantly exercised himself in it in his health and vigor, will do it with less pain in his sickness and weakness; and he who hath practiced it all his life, will do it with more ease and less perplexity in the hour of his death.