I am disgusted with innovation, in whatever guise, and with reason, for I have seen very harmful effects of it.

Everyone calls barbarity what he is not accustomed to.

It costs an unreasonable woman no more to pass over one reason than another; they cherish themselves most where they are most wrong.

God might grant us riches, honours, life, and even health, to our own hurt; for every thing that is pleasing to us is not always good for us. If he sends us death, or an increase of sickness, instead of a cure, Vvrga tua et baculus, tuus ipsa me consolata sunt. "Thy rod and thy staff have comforted me," he does it by the rule of his providence, which better and more certainly discerns what is proper for us than we can do; and we ought to take it in good part, as coming from a wise and most friendly hand.

It is very easy to accuse a government of imperfection, for all mortal things are full of it.

The height and value of true virtue consists in the facility, utility, and pleasure of its exercise; so far from difficulty, that boys, as well as men, and the innocent as well as the subtle, may make it their own; and it is by order and good conduct, and not by force, that it is to be acquired.

All opinions in the world agree in this, that pleasure is our end, although they differ as to the means of attaining it.