Jesters do often prove prophets.

What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.

Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!

Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before...

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.

The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.

The Mind that lies fallow but a single Day, sprouts up in Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.

Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies.

No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.

Among all kinds of Writing, there is none in which Authors are more apt to miscarry than in Works of Humour, as there is none in which they are more ambitious to excel.

We all of us complain of the shortness of time, saith Seneca, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives, says he, are spent either in doing nothing at...

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.

To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one’s self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.

The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.

Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.

The woman that deliberates is lost.

He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.

The post of honour is a private station.

Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.

A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.

To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.

We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.

A misery is not to be measured from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer.

If you wish success in life, make perseverance you bosom friend, experience your wise councellor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter.

Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.