A modest person seldom fails to gain the goodwill of those he converses with, because nobody envies a man who does not appear to be pleased with himself.

Pride destroys all symmetry and grace, and affectation is a more terrible enemy to fine faces than the small-pox.

Age in a virtuous person, of either sex, carries in it an authority which makes it preferable to all the pleasures of youth.

A modest person seldom fails to gain the goodwill of those he converses with, because nobody envies a man who does not appear to be pleased with himself.

I cannot think of any character below the flatterer, except he who envies him

Many take pleasure in spreading abroad the weakness of an exalted character.

I love to consider an Infidel, whether distinguished by the title of deist, atheist, or free-thinker, by three different lights, in his solitude, his afflictions, and his last moments.... [In these situations such people show themselves] in solitude, incapable or rapture or elevation, ... in distress, [with] a halter or a pistol the only refuge [they] can fly to, ... [and liable to conversion] at the approach of death.