If the show of any thing be good for any thing, I am sure sincerity is better; for why does any man dissemble, or seem to be that which he is not, but because he thinks it good to have such a quality as he pretends to?

We anticipate our own happiness, and eat out the heart and sweetness of worldly pleasures by delightful forethought of them.

The angriest person in a controversy is the one most liable to be in the wrong.

Whatever convenience may be thought to be in falsehood and dissimulation, it is soon over; but the inconvenience of it is perpetual, because it brings a man under everlasting jealousy and suspicion, so that he is not believed when he speaks the truth, nor trusted when perhaps he means honestly.

Zeal is fit for wise men, but flourishes chiefly among fools.

There is one way whereby we may secure our riches, and make sure friends to ourselves of them,--by laying them out in charity.

Religion in a magistrate strengthens his authority, because it procures veneration, and gains a reputation to it. In all the affairs of this world, so much reputation is in reality so much power.