Of all eloquence a nickname is the most concise; of all arguments the most unanswerable.

To be forward to praise others implies either great eminence, that can afford to, part with applause; or great quickness of discernment, with confidence in our own judgments; or great sincerity and love of truth, getting the better of our self-love.

We are all of us, more or less, the slaves of opinion.

Who likes not his business, his business likes not him.

I like a person who knows his own mind and sticks to it; who sees at once what is to be done in given circumstances and does it. He does not beat about the bush for difficulties or excuses, but goes the shortest and most effectual way to work to attain his own ends, or to accomplish a useful object.

In what we really understand, we reason but little.

The most phlegmatic dispositions often contain the most inflammable spirits, as fire is struck from the hardest flints.