Were a man's sorrows and disquietudes summed up at the end of his life, it would generally be found that he had suffered more from the apprehension of such evils as never happened to him than from those evils which had really befallen him.

Tradition is an important help to history, but its statements should be carefully scrutinized before we rely on them.

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.

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.

A true critic ought to dwell rather upon excellencies than imperfections

Whether zeal or moderation be the point we aim at, let us keep fire out of the one, and frost out of the other.

Wine displays every little spot of the soul in its utmost deformity.