No man was ever great by imitation.

All intellectual improvement arises from leisure.

Hope is an amusement rather than a good, and adapted to none but very tranquil minds.

A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him.

Every man prefers virtue, when there is not some strong incitement to transgress its precepts.

The maxim of Cleobulus, "Mediocrity is best," has been long considered a universal principle, extending through the whole compass of life and nature. The experience of every age seems to have given it new confirmation, and to show that nothing, however specious or alluring, is pursued with propriety or enjoyed with safety beyond certain limits.

Those who will not take the trouble to think for themselves, have always somebody that thinks for them; and the difficulty in writing is to please those from whom others learn to be pleased.