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

They are, as it were, train-bearers in the pageant of life, and hold a glass up to humanity, frailer than itself. We see ourselves at second-hand in them: they show us all that we are, all that we wish to be, and all that we dread to be. What brings the resemblance nearer is, that, as they imitate us, we, in our turn, imitate them. There is no class of society whom so many persons regard with affection as actors.

The truth is, we pamper little griefs into great ones, and bear great ones as well as we can.

To display the greatest powers, unless they are applied to great purposes, makes nothing for the character of greatness.

It might be argued, that to be a knave is the gift of fortune, but to play the fool to advantage it is necessary to be a learned man.

We can scarcely hate anyone that we know.

If we are long absent from our friends, we forget them; if we are constantly with them, we despise them.