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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Some read to think, these are rare; some to write, these are common; and some read to talk, and these form the great majority. ”

“Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.”

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