Men are like wine,--not good before the lees of clownishness be settled.

He who would be singular in his apparel had need have something superlative to balance that affectation.

Any man shall speak the better when he knows what others have said, and sometimes the consciousness of his inward knowledge gives a confidence to his outward behavior, which of all other is the best thing to grace a man in his carriage.

Fear, if it be not immoderate, puts a guard about us that does watch and defend us; but credulity keeps us naked, and lays us open to all the sly assaults of ill-intending men: it was a virtue when man was in his innocence; but since his fall, it abuses those that own it.

Virtue dwells at the head of a river, to which we cannot get but by rowing against the stream.

God has made no one absolute. The rich depend on the poor, as well as the poor on the rich. The world is but a magnificent building; all the stones are gradually cemented together. No one subsists by himself.

It is rare to see a rich man religious; for religion preaches restraint, and riches prompt to unlicensed freedom.