I have gathered a posy of other men’s flowers and only the thread that bonds them is my own.

No man is so exquisitely honest or upright in living, but that ten times in his life he might not lawfully be hanged.

It makes me hate accepting things that are probable when they are held up before me as infallibly true. I prefer these words which tone down and modify the hastiness of our propositions: "Perhaps, In some sort, Some, They say, I think," and the like.

Ambition is, of all other, the most contrary humor to solitude; and glory and repose are so inconsistent that they cannot possibly inhabit one and the same place; and for so much as I understand, those have only their arms and legs disengaged from the crowd, their mind and intention remain engaged behind more than ever.

A little of everything and nothing thoroughly, after the French fashion.

Of the opinions of philosophy I most gladly embrace those that are most solid, that is to say, most human and most our own; my opinions, in conformity with my conduct, are low and humble.

Like the watermen who advance forward while they look backward.