He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.
Prudence keeps life safe but does not often make it happy.
Man is not weak - knowledge is more than equivalent to force. The master of mechanics laughs at strength.
No man ever yet became great by imitation.
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.
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...
A am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice.
Your manuscript is both good and original but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.
The world is seldom what it seems to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.
When two Englishmen meet their first talk is of the weather.
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 with traveling. A man must carry knowledge with him if he would...
Silence propagates itself and the longer talk has been suspended the more difficult it is to find anything to say.
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.
I deny the lawfulness of telling a lie to a sick man for fear of alarming him you have no business with consequences you are to tell the truth.
A man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge.
That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.
A man Sir should keep his friendship in constant repair.
Adversity has ever been considered as the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself being free from flatterers.