Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they might have been.
Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.
The same reason makes a man a religious enthusiast that makes a man an enthusiast in any other way: an uncomfortable mind in an uncomfortable body.
We do not die wholly at our deaths: we have moldered away gradually long before. Faculty after faculty, interest after interest, attachment after attachment disappear: we are torn from ourselves while living.
Grace is the absence of everything that indicates pain or difficulty, hesitation or incongruity.
Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.
Silence is one great art of conversation.
Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets. We attempt nothing great but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter; we persevere in nothing great but from a pride in overcoming them.
Reason, with most people, means their own opinions.
The soul of dispatch is decision.
A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means.
Zeal will do more than knowledge.
The same reason makes a man a religious enthusiast that makes a man an enthusiast in any other way ... an uncomfortable mind in an uncomfortable body.
Anyone is to be pitied who has just sense enough to perceive his deficiencies.
It is well there is no one without fault; for he would not have a friend in the world. He would seem to belong to a different species.
We are fonder of visiting our friends in health than in sickness. We judge less favorably of their characters when any misfortune happens to them; and a lucky hit, either in business or reputation, improves even their personal appearance in our eyes.
To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind.
We often choose a friend as we do a mistress, for no particular excellence in themselves, but merely from some circumstance that flatters our self-love.
True friendship is self-love at second hand.
We must be doing something to be happy.
