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

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.

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

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

Consult duty not events.

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

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

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

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

Everything that looks to the future elevates human nature.

A solitude is the audience-chamber of God.

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

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

No thoroughly occupied person was ever found really miserable.

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

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

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

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

Ambition is but avarice on stilts, and masked.

Great men always pay deference to greater.

The Siren waits thee, singing song for song.

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

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

An ingenuous mind feels in unmerited praise the bitterest reproof.

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

Delay in justice is injustice.

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

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

We talk on principal, but act on motivation.

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