It is generally allowed, that no man ever found the happiness of possession proportionate to that expectation which incited his desire, and invigorated his pursuit; nor has any man found the evils of life so formidable in reality, as they were described to him by his own imagination; every species of distress brings with it some peculiar supports, some unforeseen means of resisting, or powers of enduring.

He that voluntarily continues in ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces.

Our minds, like our bodies, are in continual flux; something is hourly lost, and something acquired.... Do not suffer life to stagnate; it will grow muddy for want of motion: commit yourself again to the current of the world.

Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.

Virtue is too often merely local.

Pride is a vice, which pride itself inclines every man to find in others, and to overlook in himself

The hopes of zeal are not wholly groundless.