I am much afraid that we shall have very greatly hastened the decline and ruin of the New World by our contagion, and that we willhave sold it our opinions and our arts very dear.

I look upon the too good opinion that man has of himself, as the nursing mother of all false opinions, both public and private.

If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.

A man must live in the world and make the best of it, such as it is.

Tis well for old age that it is always accompanied with want of perception, ignorance, and a facility of being deceived. For should we see how we are used and would not acquiesce, what would become of us?

The vulgar and common esteem is seldom happy in hitting right; and I am much mistaken if, amongst the writings of my time, the worst are not those which have most gained the popular applause.

A hair shirt does not always render those chaste who wear it.