Without the aid of prejudice and custom, I should not be able to find my way across the room.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.

The world judge of men by their ability in their profession, and we judge of ourselves by the same test: for it is on that on which our success in life depends.

Affectation is as necessary to the mind as dress is to the body.

If I have not read a book before, it is, for all intents and purposes, new to me whether it was printed yesterday or three hundred years ago.

True modesty and true pride are much the same thing: both consist in setting a just value on ourselves - neither more nor less.

You shall yourself be judge. Reason, with most people, means their own opinion.