Great men lose somewhat of their greatness by being near us; ordinary men gain much.

The Siren waits thee, singing song for song.

Even the weakest disputant is made so conceited by what he calls religion, as to think himself wiser than the wisest who think differently from him.

There is delight in singing, though none hear beside the singer.

The wise become as the unwise in the enchanted chambers of Power, whose lamps make every face the same colour.

Truth, like the juice of the poppy, in small quantities, calms men; in larger, heats and irritates them, and is attended by fatal consequences in excess.

No thoroughly occupied person was ever found really miserable.

Music is God's gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to Heaven.

In argument, truth always prevails finally; in politics, falsehood always.

A man's vanity tells him what is honor, a man's conscience what is justice.

An ingenuous mind feels in unmerited praise the bitterest reproof.

Ambition is but avarice on stilts, and masked.

We are no longer happy so soon as we wish to be happier.

Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose their direction and begin to bend.

I strove with none; for none was worth my strife.

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

Prose on certain occasions can bear a great deal of poetry; on the other hand, poetry sinks and swoons under a moderate weight of prose.

Everything that looks to the future elevates human nature.

Ambition has but one reward for all: A little power, a little transient fame; A grave to rest in, and a fading name!

We think that we suffer from ingratitude, while in reality we suffer from self-love.

People, like nails, lose their effectiveness when they lose direction and begin to bend.

We talk on principal, but act on motivation.

A solitude is the audience-chamber of God.

Many laws as certainly make bad men, as bad men make many laws.

The flame of anger, bright and brief, sharpens the barb of love.

Delay in justice is injustice.

The writing of the wise are the only riches our posterity cannot squander.

We cannot be contented because we are happy, and we cannot be happy because we are contented.

Great men always pay deference to greater.

Great men lose somewhat of their greatness by being near us; ordinary men gain much.

Goodness does not more certainly make men happy than happiness makes them good.

No ashes are lighter than those of incense, and few things burn out sooner.

We often fancy that we suffer from ingratitude, while in reality we suffer from self-love.

Consult duty not events.

There is no easy path leading out of life, and few easy ones that lie within it.

Study is the bane of childhood, the oil of youth, the indulgence of adulthood, and a restorative in old age.

My thoughts are my company; I can bring them together, select them, detain them, dismiss them.

Every sect is a moral check on its neighbour. Competition is as wholesome in religion as in commerce.

Belief in the future life is the appetite of reason.

Authors are like cattle going to a fair: those of the same field can never move on without butting one another.

A good cook is the peculiar gift of the gods. He must be a perfect creature from the brain to the palate from the palate to the fingers end.

Cruelty is the highest pleasure to the cruel man it is his love.

It is delightful to kiss the eyelashes of the beloved is it not But never so delightful as when fresh tears are on them.

How delightful it is to see a friend after a length of absence How delightful to chide him for that length of absence to which we owe such delight.

Merit has rarely risen of itself but a pebble or a twig is often quite sufficient for it to spring from to the highest ascent. There is usually some baseness before there is any elevation.

There is only one word of tenderness we could say, which we have not said oftentimes before ; and there is no consolation in it. The happy never say, and never hear said, farewell.

Politeness is not always a sign of wisdom; but the want of it always leaves room for a suspicion of folly, if folly and imprudence are the same.

What is reading but silent conversation?

Every witticism is an inexact thought; that which is perfectly true is imperfectly witty.