I am convinced that a light supper, a good night's sleep, and a fine morning, have sometimes made a hero of the same man, who, by an indigestion, a restless night, and rainy morning, would have proved a coward.

A rake is a composition of all the lowest, most ignoble, degrading, and shameful vices; they all conspire to disgrace his character, and to ruin his fortune; while wine and the pox content which shall soonest and most effectually destroy his constitution.

Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial.

Fear invites danger; concealed cowards insult known ones.

Statesmen and beauties are very rarely sensible of the gradations of their decay.

It is often more necessary to conceal contempt than resentment; the former is never forgiven, but the later is sometimes forgotten.

Talk often, but never long; in that case, if you do not please, at least you are sure not to tire your hearers. Pay your own reckoning, but do not treat the whole company; this being one of the few cases in which people do not care to be treated, every one being fully convinced that he has wherewithal to pay.