If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.

The future is bought with the present.

The fiction of happiness is propagated by every tongue and confirmed by every look till at last all profess the joy which they do not feel and consent to yield to the general delusion.

As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.

He that floats lazily down the stream, in pursuit of something borne along by the same current, will find himself indeed moved forward; but unless he lays his hand to the oar, and increases his speed by his own labour, must be always at the same distance from that which he is following.

We may take Fancy for a companion, but must follow Reason as our guide.

To neglect at any time preparation for death is to sleep on our post at a siege; to omit it in old age is to sleep at an attack.