Most minds are the slaves of external circumstances, and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them.

When the original is well chosen and judiciously copied, the imitator often arrives at excellence which he could never have attained without direction; for few are formed with abilities to discover new possibilities of excellence, and to distinguish themselves by means never tried before.

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation.

An old friend never can be found, and nature has provided that he cannot easily be lost.

Mutual cowardice keeps us in peace.

That friendship may be at once fond and lasting, there must not only be equal virtue on each part, but virtue of the same kind; not only the same end must be proposed, but the same means must be approved by both.