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

Men of wit, learning and virtue might strike out every offensive or unbecoming passage from plays.

Nothing more unqualified the man to act with prudence than a misfortune that is attended with shame and guilt.

Most sorts of diversion in men, children and other animals, are in imitation of fighting.

But you think that it is time for me to have done with the world, and so I would if I could get into a better before I was called into the best, and not die here in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole.

When I am reading a book, whether wise or silly, it seems to me to be alive and talking to me.

Vanity is a mark of humility rather than of pride.