Words become low by the occasions to which they are applied, or the general character of them who use them; and the disgust which they produce arises from the revival of those images with which they are commonly united.

Do not ... hope wholly to reason away your troubles; do not feed them with attention, and they will die imperceptibly away. Fix your thoughts upon your business, fill your intervals with company, and sunshine will again break in upon your mind.

Dishonor waits on perfidy. A man should blush to think a falsehood; it is the crime of cowards.

It is our first duty to serve society, and after we have done that, we may attend wholly to the salvation of our own souls.

If useless thoughts could be expelled from the mind, all the valuable parts of our knowledge would more frequently recur.

Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation.

A book should teach us to enjoy life, or to endure it.