There never appear more than five or six men of genius in an age, but if they were united the world could not stand before them.

There were many times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails.

And surely one of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid.

Wise people are never less alone than when they are alone.

So endless and exorbitant are the desires of men that they will grasp at all, and can form no scheme of perfect happiness with less.

For the rest, whatever we have got has been by infinite labor, and search, and ranging through every corner of nature; the difference is that instead of dirt and poison, we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax, thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.

Vanity is a natural object of temptation to a woman.