how impossible it is not to laugh in some company, or to laugh in others.

We are all apt to think that an opinion that differs from our own is a prejudice.

The labor of thinking was so great to me, that having once come to a conclusion upon any subject, I would rather persist in it, right or wrong, than be at the trouble of going over the process again to revise and rectify my judgment.

How is it that hope so powerfully excites, and fear so absolutely depresses all our faculties?

Now flattery can never do good; twice cursed in the giving and the receiving, it ought to be.

First loves are not necessarily more foolish than others; but the chances are certainly against them. Proximity of time or place, a variety of accidental circumstances more than the essential merits of the object, often produce what is called first love.

sometimes the very faults of parents produce a tendency to opposite virtues in their children.