So scanty is our present allowance of happiness that in many situations life could scarcely be supported if hope were not allowed to relieve the present hour by pleasures borrowed from the future.

When any calamity is suffered, the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.

I soon found that wit, like every other power, has its boundaries; that its success depends upon the aptitude of others to receive impressions; and that as some bodies, indissoluble by heat, can set the furnace and crucible at defiance, there are min

Sir, he throws away his money without thought and without merit. I do not call a tree generous that sheds its fruit at every breeze.

A man has no more right to say an uncivil thing than to act one; no more right to say a rude thing to another than to knock him down.

We have less reason to be surprised or offended when we find others differ from us in opinion, because we very often differ from ourselves.

There is a certain degree of temptation which will overcome any virtue. Now, in so far as you approach temptation to a man, you do him an injury; and, if he is overcome, you share his guilt.