More men are guilty of treason through weakness than any studied design to betray.

Idleness and constancy fix the mind to what it finds easy and agreeable. This habit always confines and cramps up our knowledge; and no one has ever taken the trouble to stretch and carry his understanding as far as it could go.

Fortune never appears so blind as to those to whom she does no good.

Almost everyone takes pleasure in repaying trifling obligations, very many feel gratitude for those that are moderate; but there is scarcely anyone who is not ungrateful for those that are weighty.

We acknowledge that we should not talk of our wives; but we seem not to know that we should talk still less of ourselves.

We may say of agreeableness, as distinct from beauty, that it consists in a symmetry of which we know not the rules, and a secret conformity of the features to each other, as also to the air and complexion of the person.

Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself.