43 quotes
Benevolence is allied to few vices; selfishness to fewer virtues.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
Even dress is apt to inflame a man's opinion of himself.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
The coward reckons himself cautious, the miser frugal.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
Violent passions are formed in solitude. In the bustle of the world no object has time to make a deep impression.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
The difficulty is not so much to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for.
We part more easily with what we possess, than with our expectations of what we wish for; because expectation always goes beyond enjoyment.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
No man ever did a designed injury to another, without doing a greater to himself.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
A rich man cannot enjoy a sound mind nor a sound body, without exercise and abstinence; and yet these are truly the worst ingredients of poverty.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
Words have a separate effect on the mind abstracted from their signification and their imitative power; they are more or less agreeable to the ear by the fulness.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
Parsimony is enough to make the master of the golden mines as poor as he that has nothing; for a man may be brought to a morsel of bread by parsimony as well as profusion.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
Custom is the great leveller. It corrects the inequality of fortune by lessening equally the pleasures of the prince and the pains of the peasant.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
Nothing so uncertain as general reputation. A man injures me from humor, passion, or interest; hates me because he has injured me; and speaks ill of me because he hates me.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
An agreeable figure and winning manner, which inspire affection without love, are always new. Beauty loses its relish, the graces never; after the longest acquaintance, they are no less agreeable than at first.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
When you descant on the faults of others, consider whether you be not guilty of the same. To gain knowledge of ourselves, the best way is to convert the imperfections of others into a mirror for discovering our own.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
Seldom do we talk of ourselves with success. If I condemn myself, more is believed than is expressed; if I praise myself, much less.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
As nice as we are in love, we forgive more faults in that than in friendship. Expostulations betwixt friends end generally ill, but well betwixt lovers.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
Ridicule, which chiefly arises from pride, a selfish passion, is but at best a gross pleasure, too rough an entertainment for those who are highly polished and refined.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
There is no such fop as my young master of his lady-mother's making. She blows him up with self-conceit, and there he stops. She makes a man of him at twelve, and a boy all his life after.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
Beauty is a dangerous property, tending to corrupt the mind of the wife, though it soon loses its influence over the husband. A figure agreeable and engaging, which inspires affection, without the ebriety of love, is a much safer choice.
Treasury of Thought (1881)
An infallible way to make your child miserable is to satisfy all his demands. Passion swells by gratification; and the impossibility of satisfying every one of his demands will oblige you to stop short at last, after he has become a little headstrong.
Treasury of Thought (1881)