Bowing, ceremonious, formal compliments, stiff civilities, will never be politeness; that must be easy, natural, unstudied; and what will give this but a mind benevolent and attentive to exert that amiable disposition in trifles to all you converse and live with?

Bowing, ceremonious, formal compliments, stiff civilities, will never be politeness; that must be easy, natural, unstudied; and what will give this but a mind benevolent and attentive to exert that amiable disposition in trifles to all you converse and live with?

Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it.

Unlimited power corrupts the possessor; and this I know, that, where law ends, there tyranny begins.

I would have it inscribed on the curtains of your bed and the walls of your chamber: "If you do not rise early you can make progress in nothing."

The atrocious crime of being a young man . . . I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny.

An eagerness and zeal for dispute on every subject, and with every one, shows great self-sufficiency, that never-failing sign of great self-ignorance.