I do not correct my first imaginings by my second--well, yes, perhaps a word or so, but only to vary, not to delete. I want to represent the course of my humors and I want people to see each part at its birth.

I speak the truth, not my fill of it, but as much as I dare speak; and I dare to do so a little more as I grow old.

I am much afraid that we shall have very greatly hastened the decline and ruin of the New World by our contagion, and that we willhave sold it our opinions and our arts very dear.

Petty vexations may at times be petty, but still they are vexations. The smallest and most inconsiderable annoyances are the most piercing. As small letters weary the eye most, so the smallest affairs disturb us most.

A hair shirt does not always render those chaste who wear it.

Intoxication is calculated to put heart into the elderly and give them delight in dancing.

To smell, though well, is to stink.