Clear writers, like fountains, do not seem so deep as they are; the turbid look the most profound.

When a cat flatters ... he is not insincere: you may safely take it for real kindness.

We cannot be contented because we are happy, and we cannot be happy because we are contented.

In the hours of distress and misery, the eyes of every mortal turn to friendship; in the hours of gladness and conviviality, what is our want? It is friendship. When the heart overflows with gratitude, or with any other sweet or sacred sentiment, what is the word to which it would give utterance? A friend.

Falsehood is for a season.

I strove with none; for none was worth my strife.

A mercantile democracy may govern long and widely; a mercantile aristocracy cannot stand.