"No two men can be half an hour together but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other."

"There are indeed, in the present corruption of mankind, many incitements to forsake truth: the need of palliating our own faults and the convenience of imposing on the ignorance or credulity of others so frequently occur; so many immediate evils are"

"A am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice."

"The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking."

"His scorn of the great is repeated too often to be real; no man thinks much of that which he despises."

"It is better that some should be unhappy than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality."

"It is not true that people are naturally equal for no two people can be together for even a half an hour without one acquiring an evident superiority over the other."

"Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure."

"No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring."

"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."

"Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea."

"He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty"

"He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the winds; but he that endeavors after it by false merit, has to fear, not only the violence of the storm, but the leaks of his vessel."

"To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed."

"There must always be a struggle between a father and son, while one aims at power and the other at independence"

"The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion."

"Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy."

"The insolence of wealth will creep out"

"I have thought of a pulley to raise me gradually; but that would give me pain, as it would counteract my natural inclination. I would have something that can dissipate the inertia and give elasticity to the muscles. We can heat the body, we can cool it; we can give it tension or relaxation; and surely it is possible to bring it into a state in which rising from bed will not be a pain."

"The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning."

"What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure."

"A man ought to read just as his inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good."

"Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all."

"Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both."

"Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return."

"At seventy-seven it is time to be earnest."

"Claret is the liquor for boys; port, for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy"

"Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him."

"There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman."

"The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty."

"In the bottle discontent seeks for comfort, cowardice for courage, and bashfulness for confidence"

"Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, sickness, of captivity, would, without this comfort, be insupportable."

"Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him."

"The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity."

"When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away."

"To hear complaints with patience, even when complaints are vain, is one of the duties of friendship"

"Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God."

"To proceed from one truth to another, and connect distant propositions by regular consequences, is the great prerogative of man"

"The inevitable consequence of poverty is dependence"

"I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read."

"The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered but a general effect of pleasing impression."

"There is nothing that exasperates people more than a display of superior ability or brilliance in conversation. They seem pleased at the time, but their envy makes them curse the conversationalist in their heart."

"By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time."

"Hunger is never delicate; they who are seldom gorged to the full with praise may be safely fed with gross compliments, for the appetite must be satisfied before it is disgusted."

"Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions."

"Those who attain to any excellence commonly spend life in some single pursuit, for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms."

"The present time is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies by recollection or anticipation."

"Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment."

"Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy."

"The two great movers of the human mind are the desire for good, and the fear of evil"