It is indeed not easy to distinguish affectation from habit; he that has once studiously developed a style, rarely writes afterwards with complete ease.

Since every man is obliged to promote happiness and virtue, he should be careful not to mislead unwary minds, by appearing to set too high a value upon things by which no real excellence is conferred.

A book should teach us to enjoy life, or to endure it.

The whole world is put in motion by the wish for riches and the dread of poverty.

Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation.

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

I do not know, sir, that the fellow is an infidel; but if he be an infidel, he is an infidel as a dog is an infidel; that is to say, he has never thought upon the subject.