Education makes some men wiser, others more ridiculous and foolish!

Virtue has more admirers than followers.

Proper respect to others is the most prudent rule of directing the measure of reverence due to ourselves.

In whatever opinion we are confirmed, we consider our discrimination perfectly judicious; when we change that opinion for another, we are the same; when we relapse into a former tenet, we are so too: in the greatest deviation of principle or profession, we are still confident; and were we to progress in rapid and endless diversity of sentiment or persuasion, confidence, certainty, and inscrutable assurance would, perhaps, ever be our concomitant guides.

Raillery against fortune is the common eloquence of disappointment and misguided ambition.

In love, first please the eye, then win the heart.

A readiness to excuse some faults, shows a disposition to commit others.

The most frequent cause of regret for what we have done is because its effects interfere with what we would do.

We are often less grieved at disappointments than at ourselves for having said much concerning the certainty of our expectations.

Though you may be last to discover your follies, be always first to correct them.

The faults that are visible in ourselves should, at least, teach us tenderness with respect to those we imagine in others.

When you begin to excuse your faults, you are then beginning to respect them.

The promises we break are usually such as we are most forward in making.

Fools wait for opportunities in order to do everything; able men wait only for such chances as they themselves are unable to create.

Marriage may sometimes be compared to a lottery, in which it is better not to have purchased a ticket than to have drawn a blank.

Few criminals die sensible of their crimes.

We advise others better than ourselves.

They that are virtuous from principle may receive confidence in every capacity; but they that are so from custom or habit, are capable of trust only in matters of ordinary and settled occurrence.

The most certain way to check flattery in others is to appear insensible of it.

Never raise expectations in others that you cannot realize: promise is less pleasing than disappointment is vexatious.

Were we not accustomed to flatter ourselves, the flattery of others would seldom deceive us.

It is vain to complain of fortune while we fail in policy and conduct.

A capacity for hating the object of desire is, perhaps, the best cure for love in cases of disappointment.

It is the folly of weak-minded people, to imagine they are what flattery or conceit represents them; and that it is useless for them to be what they are not, since they seem already to have acquired the reputation of it.

Friendship is the correspondence of reciprocal regard.

No security of mind is so salutary as that of innocence: guilt, however confident, has inexorable fears.

The soul is never perfectly secure from the influence of passion; the occasional tranquility she seems to enjoy, is rather relaxation than imperturbable triumph.

It is necessary to be tolerant, in order to be tolerated.

Chastity is oftener owing to diffidence and shame, than to fortitude of reason or virtue.

Instead of loving your enemies, have no enemies to love.

Nothing is easier than to find a fault, and nothing more difficult than the ability to substitute the proper correction.

There is often more truth in the censure of enemies than in the flattery of friends.

Women of no beauty may yet be flattered to believe they possess some; others of a moderate share that they have a great deal; but those of elegance and charm generally know the perfection of their external graces so well, that they seem to covet that flattery most which heightens the opinion of their wit and judgment.

Reason is always weak where prejudice is strong.

Happiness is less regulated by external circumstances than inward enjoyment. Whoever is happy in the satisfaction of himself feels imperturbable felicity; but he, who trusts entirely to the world for the disposition of his peace, must inevitably participate [in] many privations and disappointments.

Virtue makes us appear amiable to others; vice, contemptible even to ourselves.

The praise we seek for our own virtues sometimes tempts us to flatter the imperfections of other men.

It is never easier to forget friends than when we imagine they have forgotten us--friendship, like love, requires reciprocal assurance of continuity.

All prejudices are obstinate, like diseases of chronic tenacity, and require radical cures.

The joy a person is usually seen to express at the conversion of another to his opinion is seldom more than the impulse of egotistical satisfaction at being considered worthy of didactic imitation.

For the integrity of a man's heart we can learn much from the consistency of his life: conduct is, perhaps, the best paradigm of intention or desire.

The man that does not fear punishment, little regards crime.

There are two things at which most men are grieved: when their faults are exposed, and when their virtues are concealed.

The young compliment their greatness on the number of their friends; the old, on the confidence of them.

The best rule is that which has fewest exceptions.

NORMAN MACDONALD, Maxims and Moral Reflections

We judge of others as they appear, of ourselves as we might appear.

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