The noblest deeds are well enough set forth in simple language; emphasis spoils them.

A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them.

There are only three events in a man's life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live.

Piety with some people, but especially with women, is either a passion, or an infirmity of age, or a fashion which must be followed.

There are three great events in our lives: birth, life and death. Of birth we have no conscience; with death, we suffer; and, concerning life, we forget to live it.

There is speaking well, speaking easily, speaking justly and speaking seasonably: It is offending against the last, to speak of entertainments before the indigent; of sound limbs and health before the infirm; of houses and lands before one who has not so much as a dwelling; in a word, to speak of your prosperity before the miserable; this conversation is cruel, and the comparison which naturally arises in them betwixt their condition and yours is excruciating.

A coxcomb is one whom simpletons believe to be a man of merit.