Cats like men are flatterers.

Great men lose somewhat of their greatness by being near us; ordinary men gain much.

My thoughts are my company; I can bring them together, select them, detain them, dismiss them.

There is a gravity which is not austere nor captious, which belongs not to melancholy nor dwells in contraction of heart: but arises from tenderness and hangs upon reflection.

In the morn of life we are alert, we are heated in its noon, and only in its decline do we repose.

Of all studies, the most delightful and the most useful is biography. The seeds of great events lie near the surface; historians delve too deep for them. No history was ever true. Lives I have read which, if they were not, had the appearance, the interest, and the utility of truth.

Merit has rarely risen of itself, but a pebble or a twig is often quite sufficient for it to spring from to the highest ascent. There is usually some baseness before there is any elevation.