Facts are plain spoken; hopes and figures are its aversion.

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 consider time as an in immense ocean, in which many noble authors are entirely swallowed up.

When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.

It must be so,-Plato, thou reasonest well! Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, This longing after immortality? Or whence this secret dread and inward horror Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 'T is the divinity that stirs within us; 'T is Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man. Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought!

There is noting truly valuable which can be purchased without pains and labor. The gods have set a price upon every real and noble pleasure.

Poverty palls the most generous spirits; it cows industry, and casts resolution itself into despair.