"Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable."

"Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable."

"To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution."

"Words are but the signs of ideas."

"Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned."

"It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality."

"I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world."

"A man will turn over half a library to make one book."

"Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess."

"From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life."

"If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?"

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

"At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest."

"A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself."

"Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content."

"It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability."

"It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time."

"You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company."

"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money."

"Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent."

"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome."

"Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see."

"If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance."

"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."

"So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something."

"Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little."

"He that undervalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them."

"It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done."

"Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle."

"A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good."

"Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity."

"No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction."

"Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life."

"Exercise is labor without weariness."

"The true art of memory is the art of attention."

"A am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice."

"Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again."

"There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible."

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."

"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."

"Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble."

"It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust."

"When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation."

"The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking."

"The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose 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."

"I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual."

"The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book."

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open one's mouth and remove all doubt."

"What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure."