Imaginary evils soon become real ones by indulging our reflections on them; as he who in a melancholy fancy sees something like a face on the wall or the wainscot can, by two or three touches with a lead pencil, make it look visible, and agreeing with what he fancied.

If the men of wit and genius would resolve never to complain in their works of critics and detractors, the next age would not know that they ever had any.

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

Perpetual aiming at wit is a very bad part of conversation. It is done to support a character: it generally fails; it is a sort of insult on the company, and a restraint upon the speaker.

Old men and comets have been reverenced for the same reason: their long beards, and pretences to foretell events.

The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as is the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at.

Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want.