There is no kind of idleness by which we are so easily seduced as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business.

There is no temper more unpropitious to interest than desultory application and unlimited inquiry, by which the desires are held in a perpetual equipoise, and the mind fluctuates between different purposes without determination.

Apologies are seldom of any use.

An infallible characteristic of meanness is cruelty.

He that teaches us anything which we knew not before is undoubtedly to be reverenced as a master.

Men are like stone jugs - you may lug them where you like by the ears.

Presumption will be easily corrected; but timidity is a disease of the mind more obstinate and fatal.