Be not extravagantly high in expression of thy commendations of men thou likest, it may make the hearer's stomach rise.

Know most of the rooms of thy native country before thou goest over the threshold thereof.

It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.

The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.

Perhaps I know why it is man alone who laughs He alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.

A gift, with a kind countenance, is a double present.

Trust thyself only, and another shall not betray thee.

Purchase not friends by gifts when thou ceasest to give, such will cease to love.