If I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the better of this by saying many things to please him.

The most fatal disease of friendship is gradual decay.

Governors being accustomed to hear of more crimes than they can punish, and more wrongs than they can redress, set themselves at ease by indiscriminate negligence, and presently forget the request when they lose sight of the petitioner.

The specualtist, who is not content with superficial views, harasses himself with fruitless curiosity; and still, as he inquires more, perceives only that he knows less.

An epithet or metaphor drawn from nature ennobles art; an epithet or metaphor drawn from art degrades nature.

As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.

The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity... The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.