I like to walk about among the beautiful things that adorn the world; but private wealth I should decline, or any sort of personal possessions, because they would take away my liberty. ↗
Many possessions, if they do not make a man better, are at least expected to make his children happier; and this pathetic hope is behind many exertions. ↗
The first, that their pretensions to this possession of an art properly so called in their art of speaking are entirely unfounded; and the second, that they are involved in a profound mistake in their confusion of the good with the pleasant. ↗
It is a principle of our nature that feelings once excited turn readily from the object by which they are excited to some other object which may for the time being take possession of the mind. ↗
Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry. ↗