Talent is the capacity of doing anything that depends on application and industry and it is a voluntary power, while genius is involuntary.

The humblest painter is a true scholar; and the best of scholars the scholar of nature.

We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.

Old friendships are like meats served up repeatedly, cold, comfortless, and distasteful. The stomach turns against them.

The way to procure insults is to submit to them. A man meets with no more respect than he exacts.

What passes in the world for talent or dexterity or enterprise is often only a want of moral principle. We may succeed where others fail, not from a greater share of invention, but from not being nice in the choice of expedients.

The garb of religion is the best cloak for power.