We consider ourselves as defective in memory, either because we remember less than we desire, or less than we suppose others to remember.

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

Many causes may vitiate a writer's judgement of his own works. On that which has cost him much labour he sets a high value, because he is unwilling to think that he has been diligent in vain: what has been produced without toilsome efforts is considered with delight as a proof of vigorous faculties and fertile invention; and the last work, whatever it be, has necessarily most of the grace of novelty.

Irresolution and mutability are often the faults of men whose views are wide, and whose imagination is vigorous and excursive.

Whoever commits a fraud is guilty not only of the particular injury to him who he deceives, but of the diminution of that confidence which constitutes not only the ease but the existence of society.

He that floats lazily down the stream, in pursuit of something borne along by the same current, will find himself indeed moved forward; but unless he lays his hand to the oar, and increases his speed by his own labour, must be always at the same distance from that which he is following.

The highest panegyric, therefore, that private virtue can receive, is the praise of servants.