Virtue and learning, like gold, have their intrinsic value: but if they are not polished, they certainly lose a great deal of their luster: and even polished brass will pass upon more people than rough gold.

No man can possibly improve in any company for which he has not respect enough to be under some degree of restraint.

One man affirms that he has rode post a hundred miles in six hours; probably it is a lie; but supposing it to be true, what then? Why, he is a very good post-boy; that is all. Another asserts, and probably not without oaths, that he has drunk six or eight bottles of wine at a sitting; out of charity I will believe him a liar; for if I do not, I must think him a beast.

Study the heart and the mind of man, and begin with your own. Meditation and reflection must lay the foundation of that knowledge, but experience and practice must, and alone can, complete it.

Artichoke: That vegetable of which one has more at the finish than at the start of dinner.

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

A man who tells nothing, or who tells all, will equally have nothing told him.