A certain excess of animal spirits with thoughtless good-humor will often make more enemies than the most deliberate spite and ill-nature, which is on its guard, and strikes with caution and safety.

It may be made a question whether men grow wiser as they grow older, anymore than they grow stronger or healthier or honest.

Those who make their dress a principal part of themselves, will, in general, become of no more value than their dress.

The contemplation of truth and beauty is the proper object for which we were created, which calls forth the most intense desires of the soul, and of which it never tires.

Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses.

The way to secure success is to be more anxious about obtaining than about deserving it.

Of all virtues, magnanimity is the rarest. There are a hundred persons of merit for one who willingly acknowledges it in another.