An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.

A friend exaggerates a man's virtues; an enemy inflames his crimes.

Misery and ignorance are always the cause of great evils. Misery is easily excited to anger, and ignorance soon yields to perfidious counsels.

It is not the business of virtue to extirpate the affections of the mind, but to regulate them.

They were a people so primitive they did not know how to get money, except by working for it.

Man is the merriest species of the creation; all above or below him are serious.

Among the English authors, Shakespeare has incomparably excelled all others. That noble extravagance of fancy, which he had in so great perfection, thoroughly qualified him to touch the weak, superstitious part of his readers' imagination, and made him capable of succeeding where he had nothing to support him besides the strength of his own genius.