every generation has a conceit of itself which elevates it, in its own opinion, above that which comes after it.

there are some people who never learn; indeed, few people learn by experience, so far as I have ever seen.

Terror of being found out is not always a preservative, it sometimes hurries on the act which it ought to prevent.

All perfection is melancholy.

One only says it is one's duty when one has something disagreeable to do.

There is nothing more effectual in showing us the weakness of any habitual fallacy or assumption than to hear it sympathetically through the ears, as it were, of a skeptic.

I think reading a novel is almost next best to having something to do.