We may be willing to tell a story twice, never to hear it more than once.

We do not like our friends the worse because they sometimes give us an opportunity to rail at them heartily. Their faults reconcile us to their virtues.

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.

Nothing gives such a blow to friendship as the detecting another in an untruth. It strikes at the root of our confidence ever after.

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

The way to secure success is to be more anxious about obtaining than about deserving it.

One truth discovered, one pang of regret at not being able to express it, is better than all the fluency and flippancy in the world.