It is an endless and frivolous Pursuit to act by any other Rule than the Care of satisfying our own Minds in what we do

Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools.

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

Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip.

People spend their lives in the service of their passions instead of employing their passions in the service of their lives.

Among all the diseases of the mind there is not one more epidemical or more pernicious than the love of flattery.

Vanity makes people ridiculous, pride odious, and ambition terrible.

There is no Pleasure like that of receiving Praise from the Praiseworthy

A lie is troublesome, and sets a man's invention upon the rack, and one trick needs a great many more to make it good.

A fool is in himself the object of pity, until he is flattered.

Zeal for the public good is the characteristic of a man of honor and a gentleman, and must take the place of pleasures, profits and all other private gratifications.

The beginning of forgiveness is often exhaustion. You're pooped

Miracles surround us at every turn, if we but sharpen our perceptions to them.

Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.

A treasure...at the top of any list of fantasy to be cherished.

Perhaps he was a fool, but he thought that if a work were truly great you would only have to read it once and you would be stolen from yourself, desperately moved, changed forever.

I don't think you can be a Catholic without an accompanying measure of guilt.

God's delays are not God's denials.

There is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may not find some bad motive.

Despite the fact that I spend a lot of time in London, Switzerland and New York, Africa is the place I know and love best, and my heart will always lie here.