“I describe not men, but manners; not an individual, but a species.”

There are two considerations which always imbitter the heart of an avaricious man–the one is a perpetual thirst after more riches, the other the prospect of leaving what he has already acquired.

We are as liable to be corrupted by books, as by companions.

Giving comfort under affliction requires that penetration into the human mind, joined to that experience which knows how to soothe, how to reason, and how to ridicule; taking the utmost care never to apply those arts improperly.

Make money your god, and it will plague you like the devil.

I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more.

Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality.

When I mention religion I mean the Christian religion; and not only the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion; and not only the Protestant religion, but the Church of England.

The slander of some people is as great a recommendation as the praise of others.

It is not from nature, but from education and habits, that our wants are chiefly derived.

A lottery is a taxation on all of the fools in creation.

Money will say more in one moment than the most eloquent lover can in years.

There is no zeal blinder than that which is inspired with a love of justice against offenders.

Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.

Human life very much resembles a game of chess: for, as in the latter, while a gamester is too attentive to secure himself very strongly on one side of the board, he is apt to leave an unguarded opening on the other, so doth it often happen in life.

Neither great poverty nor great riches will hear reason.

Riches without charity are nothing worth. They are a blessing only to him who makes them a blessing to others.

Without knowledge action is useless and knowledge without action is futile.

Immersing ourselves in art and the immeasurable through being allows us a more truthful experience of the world.

The local is the only universal, upon that all art is built.

Nature is beautiful because it looks like Art; and Art can only be called beautiful if we are conscious of it as Art while yet it looks like Nature.

Art is purposiveness without purpose.

Poetically dwells man upon this earth.

To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job.

It does not follow, that because a particular work of art succeeds in charming us, its creator also deserves our admiration.