If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.
There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.
Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.
The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.
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.
Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.
He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.
The world is seldom what it seems to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.
It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.
Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.
No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.
Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.
The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef love, like being enlivened with champagne.
The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity... The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.
Your manuscript is both good and original but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.
I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.
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.
Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.
Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.
Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.
I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.
All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.
There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.
Small debts are like small shot they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon of loud noise, but little danger.
There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.
He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.
Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.
Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife he is always proud of himself as the source of it.
Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.
I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.
We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.
There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.
There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.
There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern... No, Sir there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.