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

There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow.

There must always be a struggle between a father and son, while one aims at power and the other at independence.

No man can enjoy happiness without thinking that he enjoys it.

Vanity is so frequently the apparent motive of advice that we, for the most part, summon our powers to oppose it without very accurate inquiry whether it is right. It is sufficient that another is growing great in his own eyes at our expense, and assumes authority over us without our permission; for many would contentedly suffer the consequences of their own mistakes, rather than the insolence of him who triumphs as their deliverer.

Cautious age suspects the flattering form, and only credits what experience tells.

He who expects much will be often disappointed; yet disappointment seldom cures us of expectation, or has any other effect than that of producing a moral sentence or peevish exclamation.