Every man is prompted by the love of himself to imagine that he possesses some qualities, superior, either in kind or degree, to those which he sees allotted to the rest of the world; and, whatever apparent disadvantages he may suffer in the comparison with others, he has some invisible distinctions, some latent reserve of excellence, which he throws into the balance, and by which he generally fancies that it is turned in his favour.

You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense of their labor, than when you give money merely in charity.

The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

Poetry cannot be translation

I do not see, Sir, that it is reasonable for a man to be angry at another, whom a woman has preferred to him; but angry he is, no doubt; and he is loath to be angry at himself.

Sir, as a man advances in life, he gets what is better than admiration, - judgement, to estimate things at their true value.

I have adopted the Roman sentiment, that it is more honorable to save a citizen than to kill an enemy.