It is difficult to avoid envy without laying ourselves open to contempt;
for in being too scrupulous not to trespass on others we lay ourselves
open to be trifled with and trampled on.

That "familiarity breeds contempt" does not only mean, that he who is too
familiar with us incurs our contempt; but also that novelty being
indispensably necessary to our happiness we cease to admire what habit has
familiarized.

Poverty, like every thing else has its fair side. The poor man has the
gratification of knowing that no one can have any interest in his death;
and in his intercourse with the world he can be certain that wherever he
is welcome, it is exclusively on his own account.

If the poor have but few comforts, they are free from many miseries,
mental as well as personal, that their superiors are subjected to: they
have no physicians who live by their sufferings, and they never experience
the curse of sensibility.

Eloquence, engaging as it is, must always be regarded with suspicion. The
great use made of it in the history of literature, has been to mislead the
head by an appeal to the heart, and it was for this reason the Athenians
forbid their orators the use of it.

Conceit is generally proportionate with high station, and the greatest
geniuses have not been entirely free from it: what indeed is ambition but
an immoderate love of praise?

When we call to mind the humiliating necessities of human nature as far as
the body is concerned, and in our intellectual resolves the meanness or
paltriness of many of our motives to action, we may well be surprised that
man who has so much cause to be humble should indulge for a moment in
pride.

It is not so easy as philosophers tell us to lay aside our prejudices;
mere volition cannot enable us to divest ourselves of long established
feelings, and even reason is averse to laying aside theories it has once
been taught to admire.

A man may start at impending danger or wince at the sensation of pain: and
yet he may be a true philosopher and not be afraid of death.

The epicure, the drunkard, and the man of loose morals are equally
contemptible: though the brutes obey instinct, they never exceed the
bounds of moderation; and besides, it is beneath the dignity of man to
place felicity in the service of his senses.

A passionate man should be regarded with the same caution as a loaded
blunderbuss, which may unexpectedly go off and do us an injury.

There are many fools