Both wit and understanding are trifles without integrity.

We seldom speak of the virtue which we have, but much oftener of that which we lack.

Death when unmasked shows us a friendly face and is a terror only at a distance.

Absence, like death, sets a seal on the image of those we love: we cannot realize the intervening changes which time may have effected.

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.

I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing.

When any one of our relations was found to be a person of a very bad character, a troublesome guest, or one we desired to get rid of, upon his leaving my house I ever took care to lend him a riding-coat, or a pair of boots, or sometimes a horse of small value, and I always had the satisfaction of finding he never came back to return them.