Everything must not always be said, for that would be folly.

Every abridgement of a good book is a fool abridged.

Most of our occupations are low comedy.... We must play our part duly, but as the part of a borrowed character. Of the mask and appearance we must not make a real essence, nor of what is foreign what is our very own.

Tortures are a dangerous invention, and seem to be a test of endurance rather than of truth.

It is the rule of rules, and the general law of all laws, that every person should observe those of the place where he is.

Old age is a lease nature only signs as a particular favor, and it may be, to one, only in the space of two or three ages; and then with a pass to boot, to carry him through, all the traverses and difficulties she has strewed in the way of his long career.

It is the part of cowardliness, and not of virtue, to seek to squat itself in some hollow lurking hole, or to hide herself under some massive tomb, thereby to shun the strokes of fortune.