When people find a man of the most distinguished abilities as a writer their inferior while he is with them, it must be highly gratifying to them.
A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, offices, fortune and favour cannot satisfying him.
The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.
Bravery has no place where it can avail nothing.
In solitude we have our dreams to ourselves, and in company we agree to dream in concert.
In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.
Secure, whate'er he gives, he gives the best.
Hope is itself a species of happiness, and perhaps the chief happiness which this world affords.
Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.
A jest's prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it, Never in the tongue of him that makes it.
Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.
A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.
When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.
The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.
When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.
The mind is seldom quickened to very vigorous operations but by pain, or the dread of pain. We do not disturb ourselves with the detection of fallacies which do us no harm.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Men seldom give pleasure where they are not pleased themselves.
The first years of man make provision for the last.
Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.
Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.
Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.
All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.
