Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets. We attempt nothing great but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter, we persevere in nothing great but from a pride in overcoming them.

To be remembered after we are dead, is but poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living.

Some people break promises for the pleasure of breaking them.

Spleen can subsist on any kind of food.

We had rather do anything than acknowledge the merit of another if we can help it. We cannot bear a superior or an equal. Hence ridicule is sure to prevail over truth, for the malice of mankind, thrown into the scale, gives the casting weight.

The definition of genius is that it acts unconsciously, and those who have produced immortal works have done so without knowing how or why.

I have known persons without a friend--never any one without some virtue. The virtues of the former conspired with their vices to make the whole world their enemies.