A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world: if the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public.

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

The moral perfections of the Deity, the more attentively, we consider, the more perfectly still shall we know them.

Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.

Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.

Two persons who have chosen each other out of all the species with a design to be each other's mutual comfort and entertainment have, in that action, bound themselves to be good-humored, affable, discreet, forgiving, patient, and joyful, with respect to each other's frailties and perfections, to the end of their lives.

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.