“Jealousy is that pain which a man feels from the apprehension that he is not equally beloved by the person whom he entirely loves.”

Jesters do often prove prophets.

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

There is nothing which strengthens faith more than the observance of morality.

Love, anger, pride and avarice all visibly move in those little orbs.

The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

If men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve.

True benevolence or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathizes with the distress of every creature capable of sensation.

It is not the business of virtue to extirpate the affections of the mind, but to regulate them.

Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And nightly to the listening earth Repeats the story of her birth.

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.

I shall endeavor to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality.

Look what a little vain dust we are!

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.

Words, when well chosen, have so great a force in them, that a description often gives us more lively ideas than the sight of things themselves.

To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude.

it would generally be found that he had suffered more from the apprehension of such evils as never happened to him than from those evils which had really befallen him.

Wit is a pleasure-giving thing, largely because it eludes reason; but in the apprehension of an absurdity through the working of the comic spirit there is a foundation of reason, and an impetus to human companionship.