The desire for riches is more sharpened by their use than by their need. Pleasing all: a mark that can never be aimed at or hit.

Who is it that does not voluntarily exchange his health, his repose, and his very life for reputation and glory? The most useless, frivolous, and false coin that passes current among us.

Wine is the benevolent god, who gives back gaiety to men and restores youth to the old.

'As a man who knows how to make his education into a rule of life not a means of showing off; who can control himself and obey his own principles.' The true mirror of our discourse is the course of our lives.

Custom is a violent and treacherous school mistress. She, by little and lithe, slyly and unperceived, slips in the foot of her authority; but having by this gentle and humble beginning, with the benefit of time, fixed and established it, she then unmasks a furious and tyrannic countenance, against which we have no more the courage or the power so much as to lift up our eyes.

We should be similarly wary of accepting common opinions; we should judge them by the ways of reason not by popular vote.

Our religion is made to eradicate vices, instead it encourages them, covers them, and nurtures them.