It is safe to make a choice of your thoughts, scarcely ever safe to express them all.

He that loveth a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counsellor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, so in all fortunes.

As a stick, when once it is dry and stiff you may break it, but you can never bend it into a straighter posture; so doth the man become incorrigible who is settled and stiffened into vice.

The reading of books, what is it but conversing with the wisest men of all ages and all countries.

Let us consider that swearing is a sin of all others peculiarly clamorous, and provocative of Divine judgment.

I pass by that it is very culpable to be facetious in obscene and smutty matters.

It is a fair adornment of a man and a great convenience both to himself and to all those with whom he converses and deals, to act uprightly, uniformly, and consistently. The practice of piety frees a man from interior distraction and from irresolution in his mind, from duplicity or inconstancy in his character, and from confusion in his proceedings, and consequently securing for others freedom from deception and disappointment in their transactions with him.