Locke, whom there is no reason to suspect of being a favorer of idleness or libertinism, has advanced that whoever hopes to employ any part of his time with efficacy and vigor must allow some of it to pass with trifles.

Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause a while from learning to be wise. There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,- Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.

I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life: it generates kindness, and consolidates society.

The gratification of curiosity rather frees us from uneasiness than confers pleasure; we are more pained by ignorance than delighted by instruction. Curiosity is the thirst of the soul; it inflames and torments us, and makes us taste every thing with joy, however otherwise insipid, by which it may be quenched.

He is no wise man who will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.

Life is barren enough surely with all her trappings; let us be therefore cautious of how we strip her.

When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.