A man of sense only trifles with them, plays with them, humors and flatters them, as he does with a sprightly and forward child; but he neither consults them about, nor trusts them with, serious matters.

Let your enemies be disarmed by the gentleness of your manner, but let them feel at the same time the steadiness of your just resentment for there is a great difference between bearing malice, which is always ungenerous, and a resolute self-defense which is ever prudent and justifiable.

He makes people pleased with him by making them first pleased with themselves.

Sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.

I sometimes give myself admirable advice, but I am incapable of taking it.

Second-rate knowledge, and middling talents, carry a man farther at courts, and in the busy part of the world, than superior knowledge and shining parts.

Our own self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults.