Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy, is the best bred man in company.

Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.

The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter and a scarcity of words; for whosoever is a master of language, and hath a mind full of ideas, will be apt, in speaking, to hesitate upon the choice of both.

The ruin of a State is generally preceded by an universal degeneracy of manners and contempt of religion.

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

Brisk talkers are generally slow thinkers.

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.