“Did some more sober critics come abroad? If wrong, I smil'd; if right, I kiss'd the rod.”
“What's fame? a fancy'd life in other's breath. A thing beyond us, even before our death.”
“Sure of their qualities and demanding praise, more go to ruined fortunes than are raised.”
“You beat your Pate, and fancy Wit will come: Knock as you please, there's no body at home.”
“By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned; By strangers honored, and by strangers mourned.”
“True wit is nature to advantage dressed, what oft was thought, but never so well expressed.”
“How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense, and love the offender, yet detest the offence?”
“I was not born for courts and great affairs, but I pay my debts, believe and say my prayers.”
“There goes a saying, and 'twas shrewdly said, ''Old fish at table, but young flesh in bed.''”
“Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”
“It is with our judgments as with our watches: no two go just alike, yet each believes his own.”
“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”
“To endeavor to work upon the vulgar with fine sense is like attempting to hew blocks with a razor.”
“Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed was the ninth beatitude.”
“Many people are capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing.”
“True politeness consists in being easy one's self, and in making every one about one as easy as one can.”
“Happy the man whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound, content to breathe his native air in his own ground.”
“Teach me to feel another's woe. To hide the fault I see: That the mercy I show to others; that mercy also show to me.”
“Our passions are like convulsion fits, which, though they make us stronger for a time, leave us the weaker ever after.”
“The scripture in times of disputes is like an open town in times of war, which serves in differently the occasions of both parties.”
“Good God! how often are we to die before we go quite off this stage? In every friend we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part.”
“A man should never be ashamed to own that he is wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.”
“Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; awake but one, and in, what myriads rise!”
“No one should be ashamed to admit they are wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that they are wiser today than they were yesterday.”
“If, presume not to God to scan; The proper study of Mankind is Man. Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state, a being darkly wise, and rudely great.”
“Pride is still aiming at the best houses: Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell; aspiring to be angels men rebel.”
“Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos! is restored; dies before thy uncreating word: thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall; and universal darkness buries all.”
“I find myself... hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.”
“One who is too wise an observer of the business of others, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity.”
“A person who is too nice an observer of the business of the crowd, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity.”