Gratitude is a species of justice.

It was the maxim, I think, of Alphonsus of Aragon, that dead counsellors are safest. The grave puts an end to flattery and artifice, and the information we receive from books is pure from interest, fear, and ambition. Dead counsellors are likewise most instructive, because they are heard with patience and with reverence.

The perfect day for quitting is not real. It will never come, so might as well start today

To excite opposition and inflame malevolence is the unhappy privilege of courage made arrogant by consciousness of strength.

An author places himself uncalled before the tribunal of criticism and solicits fame at the hazard of disgrace.

The parallel circumstances and kindred images to which we readily conform our minds are, above all other writings, to be found in the lives of particular persons, and therefore no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography.

Men seldom give pleasure when they are not pleased themselves.