 The most accomplished way of using books is to serve them as some people do lords; learn their titles and then brag of their acquaintance. |
| Writing, when properly managed, (as you may be sure I think mine is) is but a different name for conversation. |
| Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world, - though the cant of hypocrites may be the worst, - the cant of criticism is the most tormenting! |
| I am persuaded that every time a man smiles - but much more so when he laughs - it adds something to this fragment of life. |
| Alas! if the principles of contentment are not within us, the height of station and worldly grandeur will as soon add a cubit to a man's stature as to his happiness. |
| Our passion and principals are constantly in a frenzy, but begin to shift and waver, as we return to reason. |
| Sciences may be learned by rote, but wisdom not. |
| People who are always taking care of their health are like misers, who are hoarding a treasure which they have never spirit enough to enjoy. |
| Courtship consists in a number of quiet attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so vague as not to be understood. |
| Pain and pleasure, like light and darkness, succeed each other. |
| There have been no sects in the Christian world, however absurd, which have not endeavoured to support their opinions by arguments drawn from Scripture. |
| Men tire themselves in pursuit of rest. |
| One may as well be asleep as to read for anything but to improve his mind and morals, and regulate his conduct. |
| Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners. |
| I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me. |
| It is a great pity but tis certain from every day's observation of man, that he may be set on fire like a candle, at either end provided there is a sufficient wick standing out. |
| God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb. |
| I once asked a hermit in Italy how he could venture to live alone, in a single cottage, on the top of a mountain, a mile from any habitation? He replied, that Providence was his next-door neighbor. |
| But this is neither here nor there why do I mention it? Ask my pen, it governs me, I govern not it. |
