Confidence gives a fool the advantage over a wise man.

Who likes not his business, his business likes not him.

The most fluent talkers or most plausible reasoners are not always the justest thinkers.

Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a god-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart than revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.

Our notions with respect to the importance of life, and our attachment to it, depend on a principle which has very little to do with its happiness or its misery. The love of life is, in general, the effect not of our enjoyments, but of our passions.

It is essential to the triumph of reform that it should never succeed.

The great requisite for the prosperous management of ordinary business is the want of imagination.