Patience alleviates, as impatience augments, pain; thus persons of strong will suffer less than those who give way to irritation.

... the atheists, libertines, despisers of religion ... that is to say all those who usually pass under the name of Free-thinkers.

My nose itched, and I knew I should drink wine or kiss a fool.

It is very unfair in any writer to employ ignorance and malice together, because it gives his answerer double work.

No man of honor, as the word is usually understood, did ever pretend that his honor obliged him to be chaste or temperate, to pay his creditors, to be useful to his country, to do good to mankind, to endeavor to be wise or learned, to regard his word, his promise, or his oath.

It is a miserable thing to live in suspense; it is the life of the spider.

The motives of the best actions will not bear too strict an inquiry. It is allowed that the cause of most actions, good or bad, may be resolved into the love of ourselves; but the self-love of some men inclines them to please others, and the self-love of others is wholly employed in pleasing themselves. This makes the great distinction between virtue and vice.