Domestic discord is not inevitably and fatally necessary; but yet it is not easy to avoid.

A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write.

There is nothing against which an old man should be so much upon his guard as putting himself to nurse.

A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.

The prosperity of a people is proportionate to the number of hands and minds usefully employed. To the community, sedition is a fever, corruption is a gangrene, and idleness is an atrophy. Whatever body or society wastes more than it acquires, must gradually decay, and every being that continues to be fed, and eases to labor, takes away something from the public stock.

Those who have no power to judge of past times but by their own, should always doubt their conclusions

Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.