“It is better to live rich than to die rich.”

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.

Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

How small of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.

Men who stand in the highest ranks of society seldom hear of their faults; if by any accident an opprobrious clamour reaches their ears, flattery is always at hand to pour in her opiates, to quiet conviction and obtund remorse.

A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.

My dear friend, clear your mind of can’t.

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.

Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.

What ever the motive for the insult, it is always best to overlook it; for folly doesn’t deserve resentment, and malice is punished by neglect.

Power is gradually stealing away from the many to the few, because the few are more vigilant and consistent.

The wise man applauds he who he thinks most virtuous; the rest of the world applauds the wealthy.

Pride is a vice, which pride itself inclines every man to find in others, and to overlook in himself.

Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal; and he may be properly charged with evil who refused to learn how he might prevent it.

Fame is a pearl many dive for and only a few bring up. Even when they do, it is not perfect, and they sigh for more, and lose better things in struggling for them.

No man will take counsel, but every man will take money. Therefore, money is better than counsel.

Go on failing. Go on. Only next time, try to fail better.

Once you start changing a name, you see, there’s no reason ever to stop. One always hears one that sounds better.

Better to reign in hell than serve in heav’n.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

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.

You won’t believe what you can accomplish by attempting the impossible with the courage to repeatedly fail better.