Disease generally begins that equality which death completes; the distinctions which set one man so much above another are very little perceived in the gloom of a sick chamber, where it will be vain to expect entertainment from the gay, or instruction from the wise; where all human glory is obliterated, the wit is clouded, the reasoner perplexed, and the hero subdued; where the highest and brightest of mortal beings finds nothing left him but the consciousness of innocence.

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

Sir, a man who cannot get to heaven in a green coat, will not find his way thither the sooner in a grey one.

Reproof should not exhaust its power upon petty failings.

The round of a passionate man's life is in contracting debts in his passion, which his virtue obliges him to pay. He spends his time in outrage and acknowledgment, injury and reparation.

Luncheon: as much food as one's hand can hold.

The future is bought with the present.