Might not most men be as well named boys grown old.

Man is the only creature endowed with the power of laughter; is he not also the only one that deserves to be laughed at?

The criterion of true beauty is that it increases on examination; if false, that it lessens.

How happy is it for us, that the admiration of others should depend so much more on their ignorance than our perfection!

Every character is in some respects uniform, and in others inconsistent; and it is only by the study both of the uniformity and inconsistency, and a comparison of them with each other, that the knowledge of man is acquired.

There is scarce any passion so heartily decried by moralists and satirists, as AMBITION; and yet, methinks, ambition is not a vice but in a vicious mind: in a virtuous mind it is a virtue, and will be found to take its color from the character in which it is mixed. Ambition is a desire of superiority; and a man may become superior, either by making others less or himself greater.

How seldom is generosity perfect and pure! How often do men give because it throws a certain inferiority on those who receive, and superiority on themselves!