The vices are never so well employed as in combating one another.

The way to get on in the world is to be neither more nor less wise, neither better nor worse than your neighbours.

We are thankful for good-will rather than for services, for the motive than the quantum of favor received.

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.

To create an unfavorable impression, it is not necessary that certain things should be true, but that they have been said.

Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.

We would willingly, and without remorse, sacrifice not only the present moment, but all the interval (no matter how long) that separates us from any favorite object.