The old ways are the safest and surest ways |
The present time has one advantage over every other - it is our own. |
The profoundly wise do not declaim against superficial knowledge in others, as much as the profoundly ignorant. |
The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm |
The rich are more envied by those who have a little, than by those who have nothing |
The society of dead authors has this advantage over that of the living: they never flatter us to our faces, nor slander us behind our backs, nor intrude upon our privacy, nor quit their shelves until we take them down. |
The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an empty head than the most superficial declamation; a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a vacuum |
The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence |
The three great apostles of practical atheism, that make converts without persecuting, and retain them without preaching, are wealth, health, and power. |
The two most precious things this side of the grave are our reputation and our life. But it is to be lamented that the most contemptible whisper may deprive us of the one, and the weakest weapon of the other. |
The whole family of pride and ignorance are incestuous, and mutually beget each other |
The young fancy that their follies are mistaken by the old for happiness; and the old fancy that their gravity is mistaken by the young for wisdom |
Theories are private property, but truth is common stock. |
There are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field than their own hearts in their closet. |
There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them. |