Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, and don't think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire.

To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which one of the Fathers observes to be not a virtue, but the groundwork of virtue.

There must always be a struggle between a father and son, while one aims at power and the other at independence.

Prejudice is a great time-saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts. Prejudice not being founded on reason cannot be removed by argument.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Faction seldom leaves a man honest, however it might find him.

The purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy the power of pleasing must be blown aside