Learning is acquired by reading books, but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading men, and studying all the various facets of them. Votes: 27
Regularity in the hours of rising and retiring, perseverance in exercise, adaptation of dress to the variations of climate, simple and nutritious aliment, and temperance in all things are necessary branches of the regimen of health. Votes: 18
Good breeding is the result of good sense, some good nature, and a little self-denial for the sake of others. Votes: 14
Pleasure is a necessary reciprocal. No one feels, who does not at the same time give it. To be pleased, one must please. What pleases you in others, will in general please them in you. Votes: 14
I am very sure that any man of common understanding may, by culture, care, attention, and labor, make himself what- ever he pleases, except a great poet. Votes: 11
A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things, but cannot receive great ones. Votes: 10
Swift speedy time, feathered with flying hours, Dissolves the beauty of the fairest brow. Votes: 10
In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it - thou art a fool. Votes: 9
Knowledge of the world in only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet. Votes: 8
There is time enough for everything, in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time. Votes: 8
Women are only children of a larger growth. A man of sense only trifles with them, plays with them, humours and flatters them, as he does with a sprightly and forward child; but he neither consults them about, nor trusts them with, serious matters. Votes: 7
Inferiority is what you enjoy in your best friends. Votes: 7
Patience is the most necessary quality for business, many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request. Votes: 7
If you can once engage people's pride, love, pity, ambition on your side, you need not fear what their reason can do against you. Votes: 7
Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh. Votes: 7
In matters of religion and matrimony I never give any advice; because I will not have anybody's torments in this world or the next laid to my charge. Votes: 5
Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it; most people aim at it, all people fear it, and few love it unless in themselves. A man must have a good share of wit himself to endure a great share of it in another. Votes: 5
Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise. Votes: 5
Good humor is the health of the soul, sadness is its poison. Votes: 4
Distrust all those who love you extremely upon a very slight acquaintance and without any visible reason. Votes: 4
To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination. Votes: 3
The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one's self to be acquainted with it. Votes: 2
Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends. Votes: 2
Our prejudices are our mistresses; reason is at best our wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom minded. Votes: 2
In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of fools and knaves; who, singly from their number, must to a certain degree be respected, though they are by no means respectable. Votes: 2
Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings. Votes: 2
There is nothing that people bear more impatiently, or forgive less, than contempt: and an injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult. Votes: 2
He makes people pleased with him by making them first pleased with themselves. Votes: 2
Gratitude is a burden upon our imperfect nature, and we are but too willing to ease ourselves of it, or at least to lighten it as much as we can. Votes: 1
I sometimes give myself admirable advice, but I am incapable of taking it. Votes: 1
Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable. Votes: 0
A novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat. Votes: 0
Be wiser than other people if you can, but do not tell them so. Votes: 0
A young man, be his merit what it will, can never raise himself; but must, like the ivy round the oak, twine himself round some man of great power and interest. Votes: 0
You must look into people as well as at them. Votes: 0
Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Votes: 0
The heart never grows better by age; I fear rather worse, always harder. A young liar will be an old one, and a young knave will only be a greater knave as he grows older. Votes: 0
I recommend you to take care of the minutes, for the hours will take care of themselves. Votes: 0
The only solid and lasting peace between a man and his wife is, doubtless, a separation. Votes: 0
The difference between a man of sense and a fop is that the fop values himself upon his dress; and the man of sense laughs at it, at the same time he knows he must not neglect it. Votes: 0
Our own self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults. Votes: 0
Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds. Votes: 0
Being pretty on the inside means you don't hit your brother and you eat all your peas - that's what my grandma taught me. Votes: 0
Vice, in its true light, is so deformed, that it shocks us at first sight; and would hardly ever seduce us, if it did not at first wear the mask of some virtue. Votes: 0
I find, by experience, that the mind and the body are more than married, for they are most intimately united; and when one suffers, the other sympathizes. Votes: 0
A man of sense only trifles with them, plays with them, humors and flatters them, as he does with a sprightly and forward child; but he neither consults them about, nor trusts them with, serious matters. Votes: 0
Politicians neither love nor hate. Interest, not sentiment, directs them. Votes: 0
Let your enemies be disarmed by the gentleness of your manner, but at the same time let them feel, the steadiness of your resentment. Votes: 0
Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one. Votes: 0
Honest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed. Votes: 0
Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible. Votes: 0
Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners. Votes: 0
It is always right to detect a fraud, and to perceive a folly; but it is very often wrong to expose either. A man of business should always have his eyes open, but must often seem to have them shut. Votes: 0
If ever a man and his wife, or a man and his mistress, who pass nights as well as days together, absolutely lay aside all good breeding, their intimacy will soon degenerate into a coarse familiarity, infallibly productive of contempt or disgust. Votes: 0
The rich are always advising the poor, but the poor seldom return the compliment. Votes: 0
Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked. Votes: 0
Words, which are the dress of thoughts, deserve surely more care than clothes, which are only the dress of the person. Votes: 0
Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. Votes: 0