The writing of the wise are the only riches our posterity cannot squander.

Two evils, of almost equal weight, may befall the man of erudition; never to be listened to, and to be listened to always.

We must distinguish between felicity and prosperity; for prosperity leads often to ambition, and ambition to disappointment; the course is then over, the wheel turns round but once, while the reaction of goodness and happiness is perpetual.

A wise man will always be a Christian, because the perfection of wisdom is to know where lies tranquillity of mind and how to attain it, which Christianity teaches.

Modesty and diffidence make a man unfit for public affairs; they also make him unfit for brothels.

It appears to be among the laws of nature, that the mighty of intellect should be pursued and carped by the little, as the solitary flight of one great bird is followed by the twittering petulance of many smaller.

Circumstances form the character; but, like petrifying matters, they harden while they form.