Pure truth, like pure gold, has been found unfit for circulation because men have discovered that it is far more convenient to adulterate the truth than to refine themselves.

The most ridiculous of all animals is a proud priest; he cannot use his own tools without cutting his own fingers.

We own almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed.

If we look backwards to antiquity it should be as those that are winning a race.

The seeds of repentance are sown in youth by pleasure, but the harvest is reaped in age by pain.

We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine, but if defer tasting them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.

There are many that despise half the world; but if there be any that despise the whole of it, it is because the other half despises them.