An honest man may really love a pretty girl, but only an idiot marries her merely because she is pretty.

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

The world can doubtless never be well known by theory: practice is absolutely necessary; but surely it is of great use to a young man, before he sets out for that country, full of mazes, windings, and turnings, to have at least a general map of it, made by some experienced traveler.

Vanity, or to call it by a gentler name, the desire of admiration and applause, is, perhaps, the most universal principle of humanactions.... Where that desire is wanting, we are apt to be indifferent, listless, indolent, and inert.... I will own to you, under the secrecy of confession, that my vanity has very often made me take great pains to make many a woman in love with me, if I could, for whose person I would not have given a pinch of snuff.

True politeness is perfect ease and freedom. It simply consists in treating others just as you love to be treated yourself.

Sincerity is the most compendious wisdom.

In matters of religion and matrimony I never give any advice; because I will not have anybody's torments in this world or the next laid to my charge.