You deny that man is really so prejudiced as I suppose him; talk to him then of some foreign country, ask him what religion he is of.

Habit is the cement of society, the comfort of life, and, alas! The root of error.

Pleasure is the business of the young, business the pleasure of the old.

We are oftener deceived by being told some truth than no truth.

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.

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

One great reason why men practice generosity so little in the world, is, their finding so little there: generosity is catching; and if so many men escape it, it is in a great degree from the same reason that country-men escape the smallpox, because they meet no one to give it to them.