The best way to compel weak-minded people to adopt our opinion, is to frighten them from all others, by magnifying their danger.

In business be as able as you can, but do not be cunning; cunning is the dark sanctuary of incapacity.

Lady ---- is safely delivered of a son, to the great joy of that noble family. The expression, of a woman's having brought her husband a son, seems to be a proper and cautious one; for it is never said, from whence.

When griefs are genuine, I find, there is nothing more vacuous, more burdensome, or even more impertinent, than letters of consolation.

It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in. One yawns, one procrastinates, one can do it when one will, and therefore one seldom does it at all.

I wish... that you had as much pleasure in following my advice, as I have in giving it.

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