Little would be wanting to the happiness of life, if every man could conform to the right as soon as he was shown it.

Every man that has felt pain knows how little all other comforts can gladden him to whom health is denied. Yet who is there does not sometimes hazard it for the enjoyment of an hour?

Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything.

Resentment is a union of sorrow with malignity; a combination of a passion which all endeavor to avoid with a passion which all concur to detest.

Irresolution and mutability are often the faults of men whose views are wide, and whose imagination is vigorous and excursive.

Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

The common people do not accurately adapt their thoughts to objects; nor, secondly, do they accurately adapt their words to their thoughts; they do not mean to lie; but, taking no pains to be exact, they give you very false accounts. A great part of their language is proverbial; if anything rocks at all, they say it rocks like a cradle; and in this way they go on.