Society is a more level surface than we imagine. Wise men or absolute fools are hard to be met with, as there are few giants or dwarfs. The heaviest charge we can bring against the general texture of society is that it is commonplace. Our fancied superiority to others is in some one thing which we think most of because we excel in it, or have paid most attention to it; whilst we overlook their superiority to us in something else which they set equal and exclusive store by.

The objects that we have known in better days are the main props that sustain the weight of our affections, and give us strength to await our future lot.

Poverty, when it is voluntary, is never despicable, but takes an heroical aspect.

He is a hypocrite who professes what he does not believe; not he who does not practice all he wishes or approves.

The true barbarian is he who thinks everything barbarous but his own tastes and prejudices.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater.

Or have I passed my time in pouring words like water into empty sieves, rolling a stone up a hill and then down again, trying to prove an argument in the teeth of facts, and looking for causes in the dark, and not finding them?