Nothing is more idle than to inquire after happiness, which nature has kindly placed within our reach.

The uncertainty of death is, in effect, the great support of the whole system of life.

Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.

There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.

Pity is not natural to man. Children are always cruel. Savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason. We may have uneasy sensations from seeing a creature in distress, without pity; for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them.

There is no being so poor and so contemptible, who does not think there is somebody still poorer, and still more contemptible.

Books are faithful repositories, which may be awhile neglected or forgotten; but when they are opened again, will again impart their instruction: memory, once interrupted, is not to be recalled. Written learning is a fixed luminary, which, after the cloud that had hidden it has passed away, is again bright in its proper station. Tradition is but a meteor, which, if once it falls, cannot be rekindled.