 There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman. |
| The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking. |
| No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library. |
| Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble. |
| To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly. |
| Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it. |
| We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting. |
| Love is only one of many passions. |
| He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else. |
| A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority. |
| A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but, one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still. |
| Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. |
| Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives. |
| Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and... the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use. |
| Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. |
| Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure. |
| Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles. |
| We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself. |
| The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope. |
| To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed. |
