Pride, ill nature, and want of sense are the three great sources of ill manners; without some one of these defects, no man will behave himself ill for want of experience, or what, in the language of fools, is called knowing the world.

The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.

Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.

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.

I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs.

An excuse is a lie guarded.

It is likewise to be observed that this society hath a peculiar chant and jargon of their own, that no other mortal can understand, and wherein all their laws are written, which they take special care to multiply.