Simplicity, without which no human performance can arrive at perfection.

One principal object of good-breeding is to suit our behaviour to the three several degrees of men, our superiors, our equals, and those below us.

He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.

Conscience signifies that knowledge which a man hath of his own thoughts and actions; and because, if a man judgeth fairly of his actions by comparing them with the law of God, his mind will approve or condemn him; this knowledge or conscience may be both an accuser and a judge.

The chameleon, who is said to feed upon nothing but air, has of all animals the nimblest tongue.

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

I am convinced that if the virtuosi could once find out a world in the moon, with a passage to it, our women would wear nothing but what directly came from thence.