True religion and virtue give a cheerful and happy turn to the mind, admit of all true pleasures, and even procure for us the highest.

To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude.

When a man has been guilty of any vice or folly, the best atonement he can make for it is to warn others not to fall into the like.

An opera may be allowed to be extravagantly lavish in its decorations, as its only design is to gratify the senses and keep up an indolent attention in the audience.

There is nothing in which men more deceive themselves than in what they call zeal.

If I can in any way contribute to the Diversion or Improvement of the Country in which I live, I shall leave it, when I am summoned out of it, with the secret Satisfaction of thinking that I have not lived in vain.

A man whose extraordinary reputation thus lifts him up to the notice and observation of mankind, draws a multitude of eyes upon him, that will narrowly inspect every part of him.