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 the greatest of all the virtues. Because if you haven't courage you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.
Dictionaries are like watches. The worst is better than none at all and even the best cannot be expected to run quite true.
(Adversity is) the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself being especially free from admirers then.
Very few live by choice. Every man is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his foresight and with which he did not always willingly cooperate and therefore you will rarely m...
There is no matter what children should learn first, any more than what leg you should put into your breeches first. Sir, you may stand disputing which is best to put in first, but in the meantime you...
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.
Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
It seems to be the fate of man to seek all his consolations in futurity.
He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.
I live in the crowds of jollity not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties.
It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote.
our triumphant age of plenty is riddled with darker feelings of doubt, cynicism, distrust, boredom and a strange kind of emptiness
There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.
I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.
To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self.
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.
The man who is asked by an author what he thinks of his work is put to the torture and is not obliged to speak the truth.
When an author is yet living we estimate his powers by his worst performance and when he is dead we rate them by his best.