Quote collection
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"Idleness and timidity often despair without being overcome, and forbear attempts for fear of being defeated; and we may promote the invigoration of faint endeavors, by showing what has already been performed."
"He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions."
"Gloomy calm of idle vacancy."
"Advice, as it always gives a temporary appearance of superiority, can never be very grateful, even when it is most necessary or most judicious; but, for the same reason, every one is eager to instruct his neighbors."
"To dread no eye and to suspect no tongue is the great prerogative of innocence--an exemption granted only to invariable virtue."
"Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. It becomes cheap as it becomes vulgar, and will no longer raise expectation or animate enterprise."
"Tears are often to be found where there is little sorrow, and the deepest sorrow without any tears."
"Social sorrow loses half its pain."
"We have always pretensions to fame which, in our own hearts, we know to be disputable."
"The greatest human virtue bears no proportion to human vanity. We always think ourselves better than we are, and are generally desirous that others should think us still better than we think ourselves. To praise us for actions or dispositions which deserve praise is not to confer a benefit, but to pay a tribute. We have always pretensions to fame which, in our own hearts, we know to be disputable, and which we are desirous to strengthen by a new suffrage; we have always hopes which we suspect to be fallacious, and of which we eagerly snatch at every confirmation."
"No man sympathizes with the sorrows of vanity."
"I doubt if there ever was a man who was not gratified by being told that he was liked by the women."
"Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections their author."
"You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company."
"Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy."
"Books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all."
"Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us."
"In all evils which admit a remedy, impatience is to be avoided, because it wastes that time and attention in complaints, that, if properly applied might remove the cause."
"The pleasure of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it, and the completion of almost every wish is found a disappointment."
"The essence of poetry is invention; such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights."