Were we as eloquent as angels we still would please people much more by listening rather than talking.

Diffidence is the better part of knowledge.

The young fancy that their follies are mistaken by the old for happiness. The old fancy that their gravity is mistaken by the young for wisdom.

The whole family of pride and ignorance are incestuous, and mutually beget each other

Some frauds succeed from the apparent candor, the open confidence, and the full blaze of ingenuousness that is thrown around them. The slightest mystery would excite suspicion and ruin all. Such stratagems may be compared to the stars; they are discoverable by darkness and hidden only by light.

He that swells in prosperity will be sure to shrink in adversity.

Life often presents us with a choice of evils, rather than of goods.