Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.

There is in this world no real delight (excepting those of sensuality), but exchange of ideas in conversation.

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and... the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

A man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company

Friends are often chosen for similitude of manners, and therefore each palliates the other's failings because they are his own.

Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled.

He that compares what he has done with what he has left undone, will feel the effect which must always follow the comparison of imagination with reality; he will look with contempt on his own unimportance, and wonder to what purpose he came into the world; he will repine that he shall leave behind him no evidence of his having been, that he has added nothing to the system of life, but has glided from youth to age among the crowd, without any effort for distinction.