What harm cause not those huge draughts or pictures which wanton youth with chalk or coals draw in each passage, wall or stairs of our great houses, whence a cruel contempt of our natural store is bred in them?

There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.

My art and profession is to live.

The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man persuades another man to believe.

All permanent decisions are made in a temporary state of mind.

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

I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy with a common and private life just as well as with a life of richer stuff. Each man bears the entire form of man's estate.