Habitual liars invent falsehoods not to gain any end or even to deceive their hearers, but to amuse themselves. It is partly practice and partly habit. It requires an effort in them to speak truth.

To die is only to be as we were before we were born; yet no one feels any remorse, or regret, or repugnance, in contemplating this last idea.

There is no flattery so adroit or effectual as that of implicit assent.

He who comes up to his own idea of greatness must always have had a very low standard of it in his mind.

We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it.

Persons of slender intellectual stamina dread competition, as dwarfs are afraid of being run over in the street.

There is nothing good to be had in the country, or if there is, they will not let you have it.