The assumption of merit is easier, less embarrassing, and more effectual than the actual attainment of it.

A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death. It not only gives us fortitude to bear pain, but teaches us at every step the precarious tenure on which we hold our present being.

There is nothing so remote from vanity as true genius. It is almost as natural for those who are endowed with the highest powers of the human mind to produce the miracles of art, as for other men to breathe or move. Correggio, who is said to have produced some of his divinest works almost without having seen a picture, probably did not know that he had done anything extraordinary.

He who is as faithful to his principles as he is to himself is the true partisan.

The vain man makes a merit of misfortune, and triumphs in his disgrace.

A hair in the head is worth two in the brush.

Well I've had a happy life.