Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense; a substitute for true knowledge. Books are less often made use of as spectacles to look at nature with, than as blinds to keep out its strong light and shifting scenery from weak eyes and indolent dispositions. The learned are mere literary drudges.

If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory.

The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.

No act terminating in itself constitutes greatness.

We do not die wholly at our deaths: we have mouldered away gradually long before. Faculty after faculty, interest after interest, attachment after attachment disappear: we are torn from ourselves while living.

We grow tired of everything but turning others into ridicule, and congratulating ourselves on their defects.

The discussing the characters and foibles of common friends is a great sweetness and cement of friendship.