quotes from classic

There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good.

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When once a man has made celebrity necessary to his happiness, he has put it in the power of the weakest and most timorous malignity, if not to take away his satisfaction, at least to withhold it. His enemies may indulge their pride by airy negligence and gratify their malice by quiet neutrality.

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Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. He whom nature has made weak, and idleness keeps ignorant, may yet support his vanity by the name of a critic.

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To see helpless infancy stretching out her hands, and pouring out her cries in testimony of dependence, without any powers to alarm jealousy, or any guilt to alienate affection, must surely awaken tenderness in every human mind; and tenderness once excited will be hourly increased by the natural contagion of felicity, by the repercussion of communicated pleasure, by the consciousness of dignity of benefaction.

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To preserve health is a moral and religious duty, for health is the basis of all social virtues. We can no longer be useful when we are not well.

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If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards.

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In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

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No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.

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Hope itself is a species of happiness, and perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.

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Sir, a man who cannot get to heaven in a green coat, will not find his way thither the sooner in a gray one.

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Your aspirations are your possibilities.

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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.

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If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair.

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That fellow seems to posses but one idea and that is the wrong one.

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Nothing is more common than mutual dislike, where mutual approbation is particularly expected.

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

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Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it

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I hate mankind, for I think myself to be one of them, and I know how bad I am.

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For who is pleased with himself.

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He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.

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