Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.

Of present fame think little, and of future less; the praises that we receive after we are buried, like the flowers that are strewed over our grave, may be gratifying to the living, but they are nothing to the dead.

The drafts which true genius draws upon posterity, although they may not always be honored so soon as they are due, are sure to be paid with compound interest in the end.

Contemporaries appreciate the person rather than their merit, posterity will regard the merit rather than the person.

Honor is unstable and seldom the same; for she feeds upon opinion, and is as fickle as her food.

There is this paradox in pride -- it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so.

To sentence a man of true genius, to the drudgery of a school is to put a racehorse on a treadmill.

He that is good, will infallibly become better, and he that is bad, will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue and time are three things that never stand still.