Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough.

Ceremonies are the outworks of manners.

No man tastes pleasures truly, who does not earn them by previous business; and few people do business well, who do nothing else.

There never were, since the creation of the world, two cases exactly parallel.

Those who see and observe kings, heroes, and statesmen, discover that they have headaches, indigestion, humors and passions, just like other people; every one of which in their turns determine their wills in defiance of their reason.

The herd of mankind can hardly be said to think; their notions are almost all adoptive; and, in general, I believe it is better that it should be so; as such common prejudices contribute more to order and quiet, than their own separate reasonings would do, uncultivated and unimproved as they are.

Vulgarism in language is the distinguishing characteristic of bad company, and a bad education. A man of fashion avoids nothing with more care than that. Proverbial expressions, and trite sayings, are the flowers of the rhetoric of vulgar man.