The most fluent talkers or most plausible reasoners are not always the justest thinkers.

Our friends are generally ready to do everything for us, except the very thing we wish them to do.

A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man. It is a bugbear to the imagination, and, though we do not believe in it, it still haunts our apprehensions.

The Irish are hearty, the Scotch plausible, the French polite, the Germans good-natured, the Italians courtly, the Spaniards reserved and decorous - the English alone seem to exist in taking and giving offense.

Silence is one great art of conversation. He is not a fool who knows when to hold his tongue; and a person may gain credit for sense, eloquence, wit, who merely says nothing to lessen the opinion which others have of these qualities in themselves.

Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves.

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