I would be virtuous for my own sake, though nobody were to know it; as I would be clean for my own sake, though nobody were to see me.

A right mind and generous affection hath more beauty and charms than all other symmetries in the world besides; and a grain of honesty and native worth is of more value than all the adventitious ornaments, estates, or preferments; for the sake of which some of the better sort so oft turn knaves.

It is the hardest thing in the world to be a good thinker without being a good self examiner.

In nature, all is managed for the best with perfect frugality and just reserve, profuse to none, but bountiful to all; never employing on one thing more than enough, but with exact economy retrenching the superfluous, and adding force to what is principal in everything.

Nothing affects the heart like that which is purely from itself, and of its own nature; such as the beauty of sentiments, the grace of actions, the turn of characters, and the proportions and features of a human mind.

Nothing is more ridiculous than ridicule.

Gravity is of the very essence of imposture; it does not only mistake other things, but is apt perpetually almost to mistake itself.