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

The love of letters is the forlorn hope of the man of letters. His ruling passion is the love of fame.

Every one in a crowd has the power to throw dirt; none out of ten have the inclination.

We judge of others for the most part by their good opinion of themselves; yet nothing gives such offense or creates so many enemies, as that extreme self-complacency or superciliousness of manner, which appears to set the opinion of every one else at defiance.

The origin of all science is the desire to know causes, and the origin of all false science is the desire to accept false causes rather than none; or, which is the same thing, in the unwillingness to acknowledge our own ignorance.

The dupe of friendship, and the fool of love; have I not reason to hate and to despise myself? Indeed I do; and chiefly for not having hated and despised the world enough.

To be wiser than other men is to be honester than they; and strength of mind is only courage to see and speak the truth.