To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.

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

Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.

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.

Cunning differs from wisdom as twilight from open day.

It is scarcely credible to what degree discernment may be dazzled by the mist of pride, and wisdom infatuated by the intoxication of flattery.

If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards.