"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."

"People have now a-days, (said he,) got a strange opinion that every thing should be taught by lectures. Now, I cannot see that lectures can do so much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken. I know nothing that can be best taught by lectures, except where experiments are to be shewn. You may teach chymistry by lectures.-You might teach making of shoes by lectures!"

"A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilisation."

"An old friend never can be found and nature has provided that he cannot easily be lost."

"Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."

"Prudence keeps life safe but does not often make it happy."

"Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him more pleasing to others."

"Your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves."

"A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority."

"The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down."

"Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return."

"To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self."

"Love is only one of many passions."

"Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess."

"A man Sir should keep his friendship in constant repair."

"There is less flogging in our great schools than formerly but then less is learned there so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other."

"He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts."

"Small debts are like small shot; they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon; of loud noise, but little danger."

"We have less reason to be surprised or offended when we find others differ from us in opinions because we very often differ from ourselves."

"Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife he is always proud of himself as the source of it."

"To improve the golden moment of opportunity and catch the good that is within our reach is the great art of life."

"Babies do not want to hear about babies, they like to be told of giants and castles."

"It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see."

"Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all."

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it."

"When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live."

"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."

"No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company."

"There are charms made only for distant admiration."

"You can never be wise unless you love reading."

"Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again."

"Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue that it is always respected even when it is associated with vice."

"Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire."

"To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity."

"A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him."

"I have found men more kind than I expected and less just."

"Despair is criminal."

"As the faculty of writing has chiefly been a masculine endowment the reproach of making the world miserable has always been thrown upon the women."

"Friendship peculiar boon of Heaven The noble mind's delight and pride To men and angels only given To all the lower world denied."

"Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise."

"When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land."

"No man was ever great by imitation."

"The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are."

"No man ever yet became great by imitation."

"It is not true that people are naturally equal for no two people can be together for even a half an hour without one acquiring an evident superiority over the other."

"In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it."

"Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?"

"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."