The insolence of the vulgar is in proportion to their ignorance. They treat everything with contempt which they do not understand.

We often repent the good we have done as well as the ill.

Cunning is natural to mankind. It is the sense of our weakness, and an attempt to effect by concealment what we cannot do openly and by force.

First impressions are often the truest, as we find (not unfrequently) to our cost when we have been wheedled out of them by plausible professions or actions. A man's look is the work of years, it is stamped on his countenance by the events of his whole life, nay, more, by the hand of nature, and it is not to be got rid of easily.

Prejudices is the child of ignorance.

Everyone in a crowd has the power to throw dirt: nine out of ten have the inclination.

The humblest painter is a true scholar, and the best of scholars is the scholar of nature.

A scholar is like a book written in a dead language. It is not everyone that can read in it.

Conceit is the most contemptible and one of the most odious qualities in the world. It is vanity driven from all other shifts, and forced to appeal to itself for admiration.

Let a man's talents or virtues be what they may, he will only feel satisfaction as he is satisfied in himself.