If men wish to be held in esteem, they must associate with those only who are estimable.

How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude!

A blockhead cannot come in, nor go away, nor sit, nor rise, nor stand, like a man of sense.

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.

When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who confided it.

We meet With few utterly dull and stupid souls: the sublime and transcendent are still fewer; the generality of mankind stand between these two extremes: the interval is filled with multitudes of ordinary geniuses, but all very useful, and the ornaments and supports of the commonwealth.

When we are young we lay up for old age; when we are old we save for death.