Where there is emulation, there will be vanity; where there is vanity, there will be folly.

We frequently fall into error and folly, not because the true principles of action are not known, but because for a time they are not remembered; he may, therefore, justly be numbered among the benefactors of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences that may early be impressed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to occur habitually to the mind.

Levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.

The balls of sight are so formed, that one man's eyes are spectacles to another, to read his heart with.

It seems to be remarkable that death increases our veneration for the good, and extenuates our hatred for the bad.

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library; for who can see the wall crowded on every side by mighty volumes, the works of laborious meditations and accurate inquiry, now scarcely known but by the catalogue.

Whoever desires, for his writings or himself, what none can reasonably contemn, the favour of mankind, must add grace to strength, and make his thoughts agreeable as well as useful. Many complain of neglect who never tried to attract regard.