Conceit is vanity driven from all other shifts, and forced to appeal to itself for admiration.

Our opinions are not our own, but in the power of sympathy. If a person tells us a palpable falsehood, we not only dare not contradict him, but we dare hardly disbelieve him to his face. A lie boldly uttered has the effect of truth for the instant.

You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.

Nothing is more unjust or capricious than public opinion.

The seat of knowledge is in the head; of wisdom, in the heart. We are sure to judge wrong, if we do not feel right.

The player envies only the player, the poet envies only the poet.

A situation in a public office is secure, but laborious and mechanical, and without the great springs of life, hope and fear.