Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses.
Life is the art of being well deceived and in order that the deception may succeed it must be habitual and uninterrupted.
Hope is the best possession. None are completely wretched but those who are without hope. Few are reduced so low as that.
A grave blockhead should always go about with a lively one - they show one another off to the best advantage.
The humblest painter is a true scholar and the best of scholars the scholar of nature.
We are very much what others think of us. The reception our observations meet with gives us courage to proceed, or damps our efforts.
Anyone who has passed though the regular gradations of a classical education, and is not made a fool by it, may consider himself as having had a very narrow escape.
Even in the common affairs of life, in love, friendship, and marriage, how little security have we when we trust our happiness in the hands of others!
To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind.
Do not keep on with a mockery of friendship after the substance is gone - but part, while you can part friends. Bury the carcass of friendship: it is not worth embalming.
Few things tend more to alienate friendship than a want of punctuality in our engagements. I have known the breach of a promise to dine or sup to break up more than one intimacy.
The dupe of friendship, and the fool of love have I not reason to hate and to despise myself? Indeed I do and chiefly for not having hated and despised the world enough.
There are no rules for friendship. It must be left to itself. We cannot force it any more than love.
Even in the common affairs of life, in love, friendship, and marriage, how little security have we when we trust our happiness in the hands of others!
No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.
I would like to spend the whole of my life traveling, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend at home.
The most insignificant people are the most apt to sneer at others. They are safe from reprisals. And have no hope of rising in their own self esteem but by lowering their neighbors.
Hope is the best possession. None are completely wretched but those who are without hope. Few are reduced so low as that.
A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man. It is a bugbear to the imagination, and, though we do not believe in it, it still haunts our apprehensions.
The seat of knowledge is in the head of wisdom, in the heart. We are sure to judge wrong, if we do not feel right.
If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning, we may study his commentators.
Even in the common affairs of life, in love, friendship, and marriage, how little security have we when we trust our happiness in the hands of others!