You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.

The hour of reformation is always delayed; every delay gives vice another opportunity of fortifying itself by habit.

It is commonly a weak man who marries for love.

When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.

A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write. The regard of the public is not to be kept but by tribute, and the remembrance of past service will quickly languish unless successive performances frequently revive it. Yet in every new attempt there is new hazard, and there are few who do not, at some unlucky time, injure their own characters by attempting to enlarge them.

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

Those who do not feel pain seldom think that it is felt.