It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend.

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.

We may have uneasy feelings for seeing a creature in distress without pity; for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them.

People have now a-days got a strange opinion that every thing should be taught by lectures. Now, I cannot see that lectures can do as much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken.

Peevishness may be considered the canker of life, that destroys its vigor and checks its improvement; that creeps on with hourly depredations, and taints and vitiates what it cannot consume.

When there is no hope, there can be no endeavor.

No estimate is more in danger of erroneous calculations than those by which a man computes the force of his own genius.