To excite opposition and inflame malevolence is the unhappy privilege of courage made arrogant by consciousness of strength.

Every man naturally persuades himself that he can keep his resolutions, nor is he convinced of his imbecility but by length of time and frequency of experiment.

A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.

There are few so free from vanity as not to dictate to those who will hear their instructions with a visible sense of their own beneficence.

Whatever advantage we snatch beyond a certain portion allotted us by at nature, is like money spent before it is due, which, at the time of regular payment, will be missed and regretted.

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

All envy is proportionate to desire; we are uneasy at the attainments of another, according as we think our own happiness would be advanced by the addition of that which he withholds from us.