Do not quarrel with the world too soon; for, bad as it may be, it is the best we have to live in, here. If railing would have made it better, it would have been reformed long ago.

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

To get others to come into our ways of thinking, we must go over to theirs; and it is necessary to follow, in order to lead.

When one can do better than everyone else in the same walk, one does not make any very painful exertions to outdo oneself. The progress of improvement ceases nearly at the point where competition ends.

Religion either makes men wise and virtuous, or it makes them set up false pretenses to both.

Literature, like nobility, runs in the blood.

Poverty is the test of civility and the touchstone of friendship.