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

Absolute power can only be supported by error, ignorance and prejudice.

Physical ills are the taxes laid upon this wretched life; some are taxed higher, and some lower, but all pay something.

Let it be your maxim through life, to know all you can know, yourself; and never to trust implicitly to the information of others.

To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.

There is hardly any place or any company where you may not gain knowledge, if you please; almost everybody knows some one thing, and is glad to talk about that one thing.

Keep your own secret, and get out other people's. Keep your own temper, and artfully warm other people's. Counterwork your rivalswith diligence and dexterity, but at the same time with the utmost personal civility to them: and be firm without heat.