Honor is the most capricious in her rewards. She feeds us with air, and often pulls down our house, to build our monument..

Philosophy is a goddess, whose head indeed is in heaven, but whose feet are upon earth; she attempts more than she accomplishes, and promises more th….

To know a man, observe how he wins his object, rather than how he loses it; for when we fail, our pride supports us - when we succeed, it betrays us..

He that abuses his own profession will not patiently bear with any one else who does so. And this is one of our most subtle operations of self-love. ….

Early rising not only gives us more life in the same number of years, but adds, likewise, to their number; and not only enables us to enjoy more of e….

Vanity finds in self-love so powerful an ally that it storms, as it were, by a coup de main,, the citadel of our heads, where, having blinded the two….

Were the life of man prolonged, he would become such a proficient in villainy, that it would become necessary again to drown or to burn the world. Ea….

Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say..

Duke Chartres used to boast that no man could have less real value for character than himself, yet he would gladly give twenty thousand pounds for a ….

Riches may enable us to confer favors, but to confer them with propriety and grace requires a something that riches cannot give..

Where we cannot invent, we may at least improve..

Suicide sometimes proceeds from cowardice, but not always; for cowardice sometimes prevents it; since as many live because they are afraid to die, as….

Two things, well considered, would prevent many quarrels: first, to have it well ascertained whether we are not disputing about terms, rather than th….

The martyrs to vice far exceed the martyrs to virtue, both in endurance and in number..

He that sympathizes in all the happiness of others, perhaps himself enjoys the safest happiness..

He that has energy enough in his constitution to root out a vice should go a little further, and try to plant a virtue in its place; otherwise he wil….

Our wealth is often a snare to ourselves, and always a temptation to others..

The consequences of things are not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that have produced them. Thus the American Revoluti….

Light, whether it be material or moral, is the best reformer; for it prevents those disorders which other remedies sometimes cure, but sometimes conf….

War kills men, and men deplore the loss; but war also crushes bad principles and tyrants, and so saves societies..

False reasoners are often best confuted by giving them the full swing of their own absurdities..