Love of flattery, in most men, proceeds from the mean opinion they have of themselves; in women, from the contrary.

I hope you will be ready to own publicly, whenever you shall be called to it, that by your great and frequent urgency you prevailed on me to publish a very loose and uncorrect account of my travels, with directions to hire some young gentleman of either university to put them in order, and correct the style, as my cousin Dampier did, by my advice, in his book called "A Voyage round the world."

Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.

It is pleasant to observe how free the present age is in laying taxes on the next. "Future ages shall talk of this; they shall be famous to all posterity;" whereas their time and thoughts will be taken up about present things, as ours are now.

No man will take counsel, but every man will take money. Therefore, money is better than counsel.

For to enter the palace of learning at the great gate requires an expense of time and forms, therefore men of much haste and little ceremony are content to get in by the back-door

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.