Expectation improperly indulged in must end in disappointment.

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

If, sir, men were all virtuous, I should with great alacrity teach them all to fly. But what would be the security of the good if the bad could at pleasure invade them from the sky? Against an army sailing through the clouds neither wall, nor mountains, nor seas could afford any security.

Be not too hasty to trust or to admire the teachers of morality; they discourse like angels, but they live like men.

Men have solicitude about fame; and the greater share they have of it, the more afraid they are of losing it.

Even those to whom Providence has allotted greater strength of understanding can expect only to improve a single science.

I am far from any intention to limit curiosity, or confine the labours of learning to arts of immediate and necessary use. It is only from the various essays of experimental industry, and the vague excursions of mind set upon discovery, that any advancement of knowledge can be expected; and though many must be disappointed in their labours, yet they are not to be charged with having spent their time in vain; their example contributed to inspire emulation, and their miscarriage taught others the way to success.