People are never so near playing the fool as when they think themselves wise.

Solitude begets whimsies.

The use of knowledge in our sex (beside the amusement of solitude) is to moderate the passions and learn to be contented with a small expense, which are the certain effects of a studious life and, it may be, preferable even to that fame which men have engrossed to themselves and will not suffer us to share.

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.

We are no more free agents than the queen of clubs when she victoriously takes prisoner the knave of hearts.

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.

General notions are generally wrong.