Nothing can atone for the lack of modesty; without which beauty is ungraceful and wit detestable.

Nothing is more silly than the pleasure some people take in "speaking their minds." A man of this make will say a rude thing for the mere pleasure of saying it, when an opposite behavior, full as innocent, might have preserved his friend, or made his fortune.

The man is mechanically turned, and made for getting. . . . It was verily prettily said that we may learn the little value of fortune by the persons on whom Heaven is pleased to bestow it.

A lie is troublesome, and sets a man's invention upon the rack, and one trick needs a great many more to make it good.

A woman seldom writes her mind but in her postscript

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

Whoever would be wise should read the Proverbs; whoever would be holy should read the Psalms.