There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.
To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self.
As the Spanish proverb says "He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him." So it is in traveling: a man must carry knowledge with him if he would br...
The poor and the busy have no leisure for sentimental sorrow.
A man sometimes starts up a patriot, only by disseminating discontent, and propagating reports of secret influence, of dangerous counsels, of violated rights, and encroaching usurpation. This practice...
Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings." Samuel Johnson
The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.
Always set high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.
John Wesley's conversation is good but he is never at leisure. He is always obliged to go at a certain hour. This is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have his talk out as I d...
The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there should be a stated...
Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.
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.
Men know that women are an overmatch for them and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If they did not think so they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.
The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.
Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.
Perhaps the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some obvious and useful truth in a few words.We frequently fal...
There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern... No, Sir there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as...
Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficul...
Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome." -
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.