The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.

Language is the dress of thought; every time you talk your mind is on parade.

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

The business of life is to go forward.

I have all my life long been lying in bed till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.

Every man speaks and writes with intent to be understood; and it can seldom happen but he that understands himself, might convey his notions to another, if, content to be understood, he did not seek to be admired; but when once he begins to contrive how his sentiments may be received, not with most ease to his reader, but with most advantage to himself, he then transfers his consideration from words to sounds, from sentences to periods, and, as he grows more elegant, becomes less intelligible.

If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.