Those who are pleased with the fewest things know the least, as those who are pleased with everything know nothing.

The diffusion of taste is not the same thing as the improvement of taste.

The Way to secure success is to be more anxious about obtaining than about deserving it.

Persons of slender intellectual stamina dread competition, as dwarfs are afraid of being run over in the street.

We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it. This is the reason why it is so difficult for any but natives to speak a language correctly or idiomatically.

People do not seem to talk for the sake of expressing their opinions, but to maintain an opinion for the sake of talking.

It is better to drink of deep griefs than to taste shallow pleasures.

Society is a more level surface than we imagine. Wise men or absolute fools are hard to be met with, as there are few giants or dwarfs.

We prefer ourselves to others, only because w^e have a more intimate consciousness and confirmed opinion of our own claims and merits than of any other person’s.

Let a man’s talents or virtues be what thej' may, we only feel satisfaction in his society as he is satisfied in himself.