Principally I hate and detest that animal called man; although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth.

Perverseness is your whole defence.

Let a man be ne'er so wise, he may be caught with sober lies.

For, if we take an examination of what is generally understood by happiness, as it has respect either to the understanding or the senses, we shall find all its properties and adjuncts will herd under this short definition: that it is a perpetual possession of being well deceived.

This single Stick, which you now behold ingloriously lying in that neglected Corner, I once knew in a flourishing State in a Forest: It was full of Sap, full of Leaves, and full of Boughs: But now, in vain does the busy Art of Man pretend to vie with Nature, by tying that withered Bundle of Twigs to its sapless Trunk: It is at best but the Reverse of what it was; a Tree turned upside down, the Branches on the Earth, and the Root in the Air.

Where Young must torture his invention To flatter knaves, or lose his pension.

Ay, do despise me, I'm the prouder for it; I like to be despised.