Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due.

[T]he 47th proposition in Euclid might now be voted down with as much ease as any proposition in politics; and therefore if Lord Hawkesbury hates the abstract truths of science as much as he hates concrete truth in human affairs, now is his time for getting rid of the multiplication table, and passing a vote of censure upon the pretensions of the hypotenuse.

Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.

Hope is the belief, more or less strong, that joy will come.

Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know any one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due.

Find fault, when you must find fault, in private, if possible; and some time after the offense, rather than at the time.

It is no more necessary that a man should remember the different dinners and suppers which have made him healthy, than the different books which have made him wise. Let us see the results of good food in a strong body, and the results of great reading in a full and powerful mind.