"Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship"

"Always set high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you."

"I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance."

"Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head that I do not love you; you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love and my esteem; I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety."

"The endearing elegance of female friendship."

"To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage."

"Sir, he throws away his money without thought and without merit. I do not call a tree generous that sheds its fruit at every breeze."

"No greater felicity can genius attain than that of having purified intellectual pleasure, separated mirth from indecency, and wit from licentiousness"

"Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. He has facts ready to his hand; so there is no exercise of invention. Imagination is not required in any degree; only about as much as is used in the lowest kinds of poetry. Some penetration, accuracy, and coloring, will fit a man for the task, if he can give the application which is necessary."

"If I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the better of this by saying many things to please him."

"In all evils which admits a remedy, impatience should be avoided, because it wastes the time and attention in complaints which, if properly applied, might remove the cause."

"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

"Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance."

"Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye."

"Pain is less subject than pleasure to careless expression."

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."

"Pleasure that is obtained by unreasonable and unsuitable cost, must always end in pain."

"If he really thinks there is no distinction between vice and virtue, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons."

"To act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite human beings, Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive."

"To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life."

"I have found men to be more kind than I expected, and less just."

"The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it."

"Wine gives a man nothing. It neither gives him knowledge nor wit; it only animates a man, and enables him to bring out what a dread of the company has repressed. It only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost."

"That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good."

"Knowledge always demands increase; it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but will afterwards always propagate itself."

"Knowledge is more than equivalent to force."

"Knowledge is of two kinds: We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information about it."

"Man is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force."

"If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?"

"Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks."

"Pride is seldom delicate; it will please itself with very mean advantages."

"I know not, Madam, that you have a right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much."

"In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness."

"The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book."

"So different are the colors of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past; and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side."

"Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favor. She imagines herself not only certain of accomplishing every adventure, but of obtaining those rewards which the accomplishment may deserve. She is not easily persuaded to believe that the force of merit can be resisted by obstinacy and avarice, or its luster darkened by envy and malignity."

"Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little."

"Turn on the prudent ant thy heedful eyes. Observe her labors, sluggard, and be wise."

"Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult."

"Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities."

"Poverty is often concealed in splendor, and often in extravagance. It is the task of many people to conceal their neediness from others. Consequently they support themselves by temporary means, and everyday is lost in contriving for tomorrow."

"This mournful truth is everywhere confessed, slow rises worth by poverty depressed."

"A continual feast of commendation is only to be obtained by merit or by wealth: many are therefore obliged to content themselves with single morsels, and recompense the infrequency of their enjoyment by excess and riot, whenever fortune sets the banquet before them."

"He who praises everybody, praises nobody."

"The real satisfaction which praise can afford, is when what is repeated aloud agrees with the whispers of conscience, by showing us that we have not endeavored to deserve well in vain."

"Prejudice not being funded on reason cannot be removed by argument."

"Many things difficult in design prove easy in performance."

"The great source of pleasure is variety"

"Security will produce danger."

"My Dear Sir: Are you playing the same trick again, and trying who can keep silence longest? Remember that all tricks are either knavish or childish; and that it is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend as upon the chastity o"