Social Sorrow Loses Half Its Pain.

In Youth, It Is Common To Measure Right And Wrong By The Opinion Of The World, And In Age, To Act Without Any Measure But Interest, And To Lose Shame Without Substituting Virtue.

We Suffer Equal Pain From The Pertinacious Adhesion Of Unwelcome Images, As From The Evanescence Of Those Which Are Pleasing And Useful.

Whoever Envies Another Confesses His Superiority.

By The Consultation Of Books, Whether Of Dead Or Living Authors, Many Temptations To Petulance And Opposition, Which Occur In Oral Conferences, Are Avoided. An Author Cannot Obtrude His Service Unasked, Nor Can Be Often Suspected Of Any Malignant Intention To Insult His Readers With His Knowledge Or His Wit. Yet So Prevalent Is The Habit Of Comparing Ourselves With Others, While They Remain Within The Reach Of Our Passions, That Books Are Seldom Read With Complete Impartiality, But By Those From Whom The Writer Is Placed At Such A Distance That His Life Or Death Is Indifferent.

Books Have Always A Secret Influence On The Understanding; We Cannot At Pleasure Obliterate Ideas; He That Reads Books Of Science, Thogh Without Any Fixed Desire Of Improvement, Will Grow More Knowing.