Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most.

Bashfulness may sometimes exclude pleasure, but seldom opens any avenue to sorrow or remorse.

More knowledge may be gained of a man's real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.

The hopes of zeal are not wholly groundless.

Small debts are like small shot; they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon; of loud noise, but little danger.

Man's chief merit consists in resisting the impulses of his nature.

Pity is not natural to man. Children are always cruel. Savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason. We may have uneasy sensations from seeing a creature in distress, without pity; for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them.