Never speak of a man in his own presence. It is always indelicate, and may be offensive .

There is no kind of idleness by which we are so easily seduced as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business.

They whose activity of imagination is often shifting the scenes of expectation, are frequently subject to such sallies of caprice as make all their actions fortuitous, destroy the value of their friendship, obstruct the efficacy of their virtues, and set them below the meanest of those who persist in their resolutions, execute what they design, and perform what they have promised.

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

If I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the better of this by saying many things to please him.

No mind is much employed upon the present; recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.

It is almost always the unhappiness of a victorious disputant to destroy his own authority by claiming too many consequences, or diffusing his proposition to an indefensible extent.