There is no problem the mind of man can set that the mind of man cannot solve.

Pleasure, in itself harmless, may become mischievous, by endearing to us a state which we know to be transient and probatory, and withdrawing our thoughts from that of which every hour brings us nearer to...

There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.

Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.

Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilisation

Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.

[C]ourage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other.

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it; for, however absurd it may be thought to boast an honour by an act...

To preserve health is a moral and religious duty, for health is the basis of all social virtues. We can no longer be useful when we are not well.

The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own, and if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

The joy of life is variety; the tenderest love requires to be renewed by intervals of absence.

I look upon every day to be lost in which I do not make a new acquaintance.

No one is much pleased with a companion who does not increase, in some respect, their fondness for themselves.

Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.

At seventy-seven it is time to be earnest.

Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.

This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

Truth will not afford sufficient food to their vanity; so they have betaken, themselves to errour. Truth, Sir, is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to...

The triumph of hope over experience

While an author is yet living we estimate his powers by his worst performance, and when he is dead we rate them by his best.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, “Sir, I am your most humble servant.” You are not his most...

He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.

We are told, that the subjection of Americans may tend to the diminution of our own liberties; an event, which none but very perspicacious politicians are able to foresee. If slavery be thus fatally contagious,...