He who would acquire fame must not show himself afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the death of genius.

Tact is one of the first of mental virtues, the absence of which is frequently fatal to the best of talents. Without denying that it is a talent of itself, it will suffice if we admit that it supplies the place of many talents.

We must calculate not on the weather, nor on fortune, but upon God and ourselves. He may fail us in the gratification of our wishes, but never in the encounter with our exigencies.

No doubt solitude is wholesome, but so is abstinence after a surfeit. The true life of man is in society.

Neither praise nor blame is the object of true criticism. Justly to discriminate, firmly to establish, wisely to prescribe and honestly to award - these are the true aims and duties of criticism.

The fool is willing to pay for anything but wisdom. No man buys that of which he supposes himself to have an abundance already.

Our true acquisitions lie only in our charities - we gain only as we give.