“A harmless hilarity and a buoyant cheerfulness are not infrequent concomitants of genius; and we are never more deceived than when we mistake gravity for greatness, solemnity for science, and pomposity for erudition.”

“No company is preferable to bad. We are more apt to catch the vices of others than virtues, as disease is far more contagious than health.”

“There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them.”

“Men spend their lives in anticipations,—in determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other—it is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future have not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.”

“We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them because we hate them.”

“Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.”

“Most of our misfortunes are more supportable than the comments of our friends upon them.”