There are few things we should keenly desire if we really knew what we wanted.

He that fancies such a sufficiency in himself that he can live without all the world is greatly mistaken; but he that imagines himself so necessary that other people cannot live without him is a great deal more mistaken.

There are various sorts of curiosity; one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us; and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know what others are ignorant of.

There are few occasions when we should make a bad bargain by giving up the good on condition that no ill was said of us.

One man may be more cunning than another, but no one can be more cunning than all the world.

We often boast that we are never bored; but yet we are so conceited that we do not perceive how often we bore others.

Whatever pretended causes we may blame our afflictions upon, it is often nothing but self-interest and vanity that produce them.