Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object.

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.

Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.

The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.

Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.

Jesters do often prove prophets.

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies.

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.

Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.

I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.

The woman that deliberates is lost.

Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man who owes his greatness to his country's ruin!

Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.

The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life... Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality.

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.

The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.

Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship.

To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.

Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another.

That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?

I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: 'What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.'

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.

What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.

Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.

Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!

With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.

To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.

There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.

Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity.

There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress.

An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.

The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.

The Mind that lies fallow but a single Day, sprouts up in Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture.