Arbitrary power is the natural object of temptation to a prince, as wine and women to a young fellow, or a bribe to a judge, or avarice to old age.

And surely one of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid.

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.

All panegyrics are mingled with an infusion of poppy.

If a man would register all his opinions upon love, politics, religion, learning etc., beginning from his youth, and so go to old age, what a bundle of inconsistencies and contradictions would appear at last.

Punning is an art of harmonious jingling upon words, which, passing in at the ears, excites a titillary motion in those parts; and this, being conveyed by the animal spirits into the muscles of the face, raises the cockles of the heart.

In men desire begets love, and in women love begets desire.