To the generality of men you cannot give a stronger hint for them to impose upon you than by imposing upon yourself.

Never trust the man who has reason to suspect that you know he hath injured you.

There are persons of that general philanthropy and easy tempers, which the world in contempt generally calls good-natured, who seem to be sent into the world with the same design with which men put little fish into a pike pond, in order only to be devoured by that voracious water-hero.

Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not.

It may be laid down as a general rule, that no woman who hath any great pretensions to admiration is ever well pleased in a company where she perceives herself to fill only the second place.

Thirst teaches all animals to drink, but drunkenness belongs only to man.

There is a sort of knowledge beyond the power of learning to bestow, and this is to be had in conversation; so necessary is this to the understanding the characters of men, that none are more ignorant of them than those learned pedants whose lives have been entirely consumed in colleges and among books; for however exquisitely human nature may have been described by writers the true practical system can be learned only in the world.