A combed writing will cost both sweat and the rubbing of the brain. And combed I wish it, not frizzled or curled.

Perfection is immutable. But for things imperfect change is the way to perfect them. It gets the name of wilfulness when it will not admit of a lawful change to the better. Therefore constancy without knowledge cannot be always good. In things ill it is not virtue, but an absolute vice.

Pleasures can undo a man at any time, if yielded to.

When two friends part they should lock up one another's secrets, and interchange their keys.

The boundary of man is moderation. When once we pass that pale our guardian angel quits his charge of us.

That man is but of the lower part of the world that is not brought up to business and affairs.

Surely, if we considered detraction to be bred of envy, nested only in deficient minds, we should find that the applauding of virtue would win us far more honor than the seeking slyly to disparage it. That would show we loved what we commended, while this tells the world we grudge at what we want in ourselves.