A man who always talks for fame never can be pleasing. The man who talks to unburthen his mind is the man to delight you.

Books without the knowledge of life are useless.

I do not care to speak ill of a man behind his back, but I believe he is an attorney.

There is reason to suspect, that the distinctions of mankind have more show than value, when it is found that all agree to be weary alike of pleasures and of cares; that the powerful and the weak, the celebrated and obscure, join in one common wish, and implore from nature's hand the nectar of oblivion.

Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.

It is scarcely credible to what degree discernment may be dazzled by the mist of pride, and wisdom infatuated by the intoxication of flattery.

Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.