The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.

I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.

I hope you will be ready to own publicly, whenever you shall be called to it, that by your great and frequent urgency you prevailed on me to publish a very loose and uncorrect account of my travels, with directions to hire some young gentleman of either university to put them in order, and correct the style, as my cousin Dampier did, by my advice, in his book called "A Voyage round the world."

The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance, and never to keep his word.

There is no quality so contrary to any nature which one cannot affect, and put on upon occasion, in order to serve an interest.

Religion seems to have grown an infant with age, and requires miracles to nurse it, as it had in its infancy.

When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.