"What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul."

"That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?"

"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."

"Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body."

"Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue."

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

"Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts; old age is slow in both."

"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."

"There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice."

"Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."

"Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense."

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

"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."

"Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man who owes his greatness to his country's ruin!"

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

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

"The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover."

"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."

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

"Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another."

"There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol."

"It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others."

"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."

"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."

"The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves."

"With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts."

"The woman that deliberates is lost."

"Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life."

"A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side."

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

"The post of honour is a private station."

"There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty."

"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."

"Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity."

"An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person."

"Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor."

"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."

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

"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 utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing."

"It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution."

"Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object."

"The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds."

"Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn."

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

"Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them."

"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 possessed."

"A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world."

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

"Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity."