So much are our minds influenced by the accidents of our bodies, that every man is more the man of the day than a regular and consequential character.

Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it; most people aim at it, all people fear it, and few love it unless in themselves. A man must have a good share of wit himself to endure a great share of it in another.

Ceremony is necessary in Courts, as the outwork and defense of manners.

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

To know a little of anything gives neither satisfaction nor credit, but often brings disgrace or ridicule.

To take a wife merely as an agreeable and rational companion, will commonly be found to be a grand mistake.

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.