If there is any person to whom you feel a dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.
Irritability urges us to take a step as much too soon, as sloth does too late.
Say the strongest things you can with candour and kindness to a man's face, and make the best excuse you can for him with truth and justice, behind his back.
Men are to be estimated, as Johnson says, by the mass of character. A block of tin may have a grain of silver, but still it is tin; and a block of silver may have an alloy of tin; but still it is silver. Some men's characters are excellent, yet not without alloy. Others base, yet tend to great ends. Bad men are made the same use of as scaffolds; they are employed as means to erect a building, and then are taken down and destroyed.
If a man has a quarrelsome temper, let him alone; the world will soon find him employment. He will soon meet with some one stronger than himself, who will repay him better than you can. A man may fight duels all his life if he is disposed to quarrel.
A person who objects to tell a friend of his faults, because he has faults of his own, acts as a surgeon would, who should refuse to dress another's wound because he had a dangerous one himself.
Some evils are irremediable, they are best neither seen nor heard; by seeing and hearing things that you cannot remove, you will create implacable adversaries; who being guilty aggressors, never forgive.