As it is the nature of a kite to devour little birds, so it is the nature of some minds to insult and tyrannize over little people; this being the means which they use to recompense themselves for their extreme servility and condescension to their superiors; for nothing can be more reasonable than that slaves and flatterers should exact the same taxes on all below them which they themselves pay to all above them.

It is not from nature, but from education and habits, that our wants are chiefly derived.

Wine is a turncoat; first a friend and then an enemy.

There is nothing so useful to man in general, nor so beneficial to particular societies and individuals, as trade. This is that alma mater, at whose plentiful breast all mankind are nourished.

Some general officers should pay a stricter regard to truth than to call the depopulating other countries the service of their own.

When children are doing nothing, they are doing mischief.

What is commonly called love, namely the desire of satisfying a voracious appetite with a certain quantity of delicate white human flesh.