No fruit has a more precise marked period of maturity, than love; if neglected to be gathered at that time, it will certainly fall to the ground and die away.

Man is said to be a rational creature; but should it not rather be said, that man is a creature capable of being rational, as we say a parrot is a creature capable of speech?

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.

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 greatest slave in a kingdom is generally the king of it.

Some women destroy all your sensibility towards them by their coldness, others by their heat.