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

The ignorance of the world leaves one at the mercy of its malice.

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

A full-dressed ecclesiastic is a sort of go-cart of divinity; an ethical automaton. A clerical prig is, in general, a very dangerous as well as contemptible character. The utmost that those who thus habitually confound their opinions and sentiments with the outside coverings of their bodies can aspire to, is a negative and neutral character, like wax-work figures, where the dress is done as much to the life as the man, and where both are respectable pieces of pasteboard, or harmless compositions of fleecy hosiery.

It is well there is no one without fault; for he would not have a friend in the world. He would seem to belong to s different species.

Poverty is the test of civility and the touchstone of friendship.

The dupe of friendship, and the fool of love; have I not reason to hate and to despise myself? Indeed I do; and chiefly for not having hated and despised the world enough.