"You hesitate to stab me with a word, and know not - silence is the sharper sword"

"Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do."

"Nay, Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate."

"A vow is a snare for sin"

"Solitude is dangerous to reason, without being favorable to virtue. Remember that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad."

"That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem."

"He that undervalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them."

"It is the great privilege of poverty to be happy and yet unenvied, to be healthy with physic, secure without a guard, and to obtain from the bounty of nature what the great and wealthy are compelled to procure by the help of art."

"Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use."

"When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live"

"Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise."

"If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle."

"Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul, which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercise and motion."

"There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow, but there is something in it so like virtue, that he who is wholly without it cannot be loved."

"Sorrow is the rust of the soul and activity will cleanse and brighten it."

"The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it."

"To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly."

"Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off."

"Men know that women are an over-match for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves."

"Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures."

"It is not from reason and prudence that people marry, but from inclination."

"Marriage is the best state for man in general, and every man is a worst man in proportion to the level he is unfit for marriage."

"I would advise you Sir, to study algebra, if you are not already an adept in it: your head would be less muddy, and you will leave off tormenting your neighbors about paper and packthread, while we all live together in a world that is bursting with sin and sorrow."

"Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than procures advantage; and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor."

"Prudence keeps life safe, but it does not often make it happy."

"Their learning is like bread in a besieged town: every man gets a little, but no man gets a full meal."

"The traveler that resolutely follows a rough and winding path will sooner reach the end of his journey than he that is always changing his direction, and wastes the hour of daylight in looking for smoother ground and shorter passages."

"A Judge may be a farmer; but he is not to geld his own pigs. A Judge may play a little at cards for his own amusement; but he is not to play at marbles, or chuck farthing in the Piazza."

"What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you understand? Then I ask pardon of the rest of the company."

"I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney."

"Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with."

"Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible."

"Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drive into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark."

"One cause, which is not always observed, of the insufficiency of riches, is that they very seldom make their owner rich."

"It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend."

"It is better to live rich, than to die rich."

"What is read twice is usually remembered more than what is once written."

"The true art of memory is the art of attention."

"Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see."

"In traveling, a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge."

"The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are."

"As the Spanish proverb says, ''He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.'' So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge."

"He that travels in theory has no inconveniences; he has shade and sunshine at his disposal, and wherever he alights finds tables of plenty and looks of gaiety. These ideas are indulged till the day of departure arrives, the chaise is called, and the progress of happiness begins. A few miles teach him the fallacies of imagination. The road is dusty, the air is sultry, the horses are sluggish. He longs for the time of dinner that he may eat and rest. The inn is crowded, his orders are neglected, and nothing remains but that he devour in haste what the cook has spoiled, and drive on in quest of better entertainment. He finds at night a more commodious house, but the best is always worse than he expected."

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

"Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding."

"I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations."

"Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas."

"Language is the dress of thought."

"He is a benefactor of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may be easily impressed on the memory, and so recur habitually to the mind."

"He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the strokes of the oar; and many fold in their passage; while they lie waiting for the gale.''"