Contempt is a kind of gangrene which, if it seizes one part of a character, corrupts all the rest by degrees.

If we estimate dignity by immediate usefulness, agriculture is undoubtedly the first and noblest science.

I doubt if there ever was a man who was not gratified by being told that he was liked by the women.

The mental disease of the present generation is impatience of study, contempt of the great masters of ancient wisdom, and a disposition to rely wholly upon unassisted genius and natural sagacity. The wits of these happy days have discovered a way to fame, which the dull caution of our laborious ancestors durst never attempt; they cut the knots of sophistry, which it was formerly the business of years to untie, solve difficulties by sudden irradiations of intelligence, and comprehend long processes of argument by immediate intuition.

Age looks with anger on the temerity of youth, and youth with contempt on the scrupulosity of age.

Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.

To wipe all tears from off all faces is a task too hard for mortals; but to alleviate misfortunes is often within the most limited power: yet the opportunities which every day affords of relieving the most wretched of human beings are overlooked and neglected with equal disregard of policy and goodness.