Making verses is almost as common as taking snuff, and God can tell what miserable stuff people carry about in their pockets, and offer to all their acquaintances, and you know one cannot refuse reading and taking a pinch.

Philosophy is the toil which can never tire persons engaged in it. All ways are strewn with roses, and the farther you go, the more enchanting objects appear before you and invite you on.

I am afraid we are little better than straws upon the water; we may flatter ourselves that we swim, when the current carries us along.

Nature is seldom in the wrong, custom always.

It's all been very interesting.

My chief study all my life has been to lighten misfortunes and multiply pleasures, as far as human nature can.

Nobody should trust their virtue with necessity, the force of which is never known till it is felt, and it is therefore one of the first duties to avoid the temptation of it.