The laws keep up their credit, not by being just, but because they are laws; 'tis the mystic foundation of their authority; they have no other, and it well answers their purpose. They are often made by fools; still oftener by men who, out of hatred to equality, fail in equity; but always by men, vain and irresolute authors.

The man who thinks he knows does not yet know what knowing is

The art of dining well is no slight art, the pleasure not a slight pleasure; neither the greatest captains nor the greatest philosophers have disdained the use or science of eating well.

The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little.

I would have every man write what he knows and no more.

When I play with my cat, who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me?

I find no quality so easy for a man to counterfeit as devotion, though his life and manner are not conformable to it; the essence of it is abstruse and occult, but the appearances easy and showy.