He who would have fine guests, let him have a fine wife.

A family ... is a little kingdom, torn with factions and exposed to revolutions.

Among the numerous stratagems by which pride endeavors to recommend folly to regard, there is scarcely one that meets with less success than affectation, or a perpetual disguise of the real character by fictitious appearances.

At length weariness succeeds to labor, and the mind lies at ease in the contemplation of her own attainments without any desire of new conquests or excursions. This is the age of recollection and narrative; the opinions are settled, and the avenues of apprehension shut against any new intelligence; the days that are to follow must pass in the inculcation of precepts already collected, and assertion of tenets already received; nothing is henceforward so odious as opposition, so insolent as doubt, or so dangerous as novelty.

One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

To prevent evil is the great end of government, the end for which vigilance and severity are properly employed.

Moderation is commonly firm, and firmness is commonly successful.