“In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness."(On the Bravery of the English Common Soldiers)”

“Those who attain to any excellence commonly spend life in some single pursuit, for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.”

“Reason by degrees submits to absurdity, as the eye in time is accommodated to darkness.”

“Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.”

“Perhaps the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some obvious and useful truth in a few words.We frequently fall into error and folly, not because the true principles of action are not known, but because, for a time, they are not remembered; and he may therefore be justly numbered among the benefactors of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may be easily impressed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to recur habitually to the mind.”

“Nothing [...] will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.”

“Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.”