A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.

When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.

Should the whole frame of nature round him break,In ruin and confusion hurled,He, unconcerned, would hear the mighty crack,And stand secure amidst a falling world.

There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.

I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.

Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man who owes his greatness to his country’s ruin!

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity.

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and...

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition, but to our...

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.

I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: ‘What I spent I lost; what...

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.

There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.

Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts; old age is slow in both.

If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it.

Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.

Jealousy is that pain which a man feels from the apprehension that he is not equally beloved by the person whom he entirely loves.

That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?

The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves.

To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.

With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.

Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating...

Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.

Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.

Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.

Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before...

Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object.

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

The utmost extent of man’s knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.

Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have...

Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady...

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

There is nothing more requisite in business than despatch.

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship.

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.

The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life… Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality.

Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.

Jesters do often prove prophets.