Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?
Love is only one of many passions.
He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.
Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.
If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.
Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return.
A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.
The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.
Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.
No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.
Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.
Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.
It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.
When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.
Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.
When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.
It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.
Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.
By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.
He that overvalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them.
Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.
Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.
Language is the dress of thought.
It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.
Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.
Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.
Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.
Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.
Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.
To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self.
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.
The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.
To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.
He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.