Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.
Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.
The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.
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.
The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.
It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.
Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.
The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.
By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time.
I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.
A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.
There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.
When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.
The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.
I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
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.
Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.
Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.
You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.
