He that wishes to see his country robbed of its rights cannot be a patriot.

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.

Whatever is proposed, it is much easier to find reasons for rejecting than embracing.

The misery of man proceeds not from any single crush of overwhelming evil, but from small vexations continually repeated.

Books, says Lord Bacon, can never teach us the use of books; the student must learn by commerce with mankind to reduce his speculations to practice. No man should think so highly of himself as to think he can receive but little light from books; no one so meanly, as to believe he can discover nothing but what is to be learned from them.

For sorrow there is no remedy provided by nature; it is often occasioned by accidents irreparable, and dwells upon objects that have lost or changed their existence; it requires what it cannot hope, that the laws of the universe should be repealed; that the dead should return, or the past should be recalled.