General notions are generally wrong.

People commonly educate their children as they build their houses, according to some plan they think beautiful, without considering whether it is suited to the purposes for which they are designed.

I don't say 'Tis impossible for an impudent man not to rise in the world, but a moderate merit with a large share of impudence is more probable to be advanced than the greatest qualifications without it.

Nature has not placed us in an inferior rank to men, no more than the females of other animals, where we see no distinction of capacity, though I am persuaded if there was a commonwealth of rational horses... it would be an established maxim amongst them that a mare could not be taught to pace.

Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet; In short, my deary, kiss me, and be quiet.

Begin nothing without considering what the end may be.

As I approach a second childhood, I endeavor to enter into the pleasures of it.