But silence never shows itself to so great an advantage, as when it is made the reply to calumny and defamation, provided that we give no just occasion for them.

Many actions calculated to procure fame are not conducive to ultimate happiness.

It is wonderful to see persons of sense passing away a dozen hours together in shuffling and dividing a pack of cards.

Persons in great stations have seldom their true character drawn till several years after their death. Their personal friendships and enmities must cease, and the parties they were engaged in be at an end, before their faults or their virtues can have justice done them. When writers have the least opportunities of knowing the truth, they are in the best disposition to tell it.

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

Heaven is not to be looked upon only as the reward, but the natural effect, of a religious life.

True benevolence or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathizes with the distress of every creature capable of sensation.