I describe not men, but manners; not an individual, but a species.

Riches without charity are nothing worth. They are a blessing only to him who makes them a blessing to others.

A man may go to heaven with half the pains it cost him to purchase hell.

Nothing more aggravates ill success than the near approach of good.

To the composition of novels and romances, nothing is necessary but paper, pens, and ink, with the manual capacity of using them.

However exquisitely human nature may have been described by writers, the true practical system can be learned only in the world.

As the malicious disposition of mankind is too well known, and the cruel pleasure which they take in destroying the reputation of others, the use we are to make of this knowledge is, to afford no handle for reproach; for bad as the world is, it seldom falls on anyone who hath not given some slight cause for censure.