There is no quality so contrary to any nature which one cannot affect, and put on upon occasion, in order to serve an interest.

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.

The bulk of mankind is as well equipped for flying as thinking.

It is as hard to satirize well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguished virtues.

I will venture to affirm, that the three seasons wherein our corn has miscarried did no more contribute to our present misery, than one spoonful of water thrown upon a rat already drowned would contribute to his death; and that the present plentiful harvest, although it should be followed by a dozen ensuing, would no more restore us, than it would the rat aforesaid to put him near the fire, which might indeed warm his fur-coat, but never bring him back to life.

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.

Ah, a German and a genius ! A prodigy, admit him !