Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

Some have little power to do good, and have likewise little strength to resist evil.

The highest panegyric, therefore, that private virtue can receive, is the praise of servants.

A man who both spends and saves money is the happiest man, because he has both enjoyments.

Every man has some favorite topic of conversation, on which, by a feigned seriousness of attention, he may be drawn to expatiate without end.

It is justly considered as the greatest excellency of art to imitate nature; but it is necessary to distinguish those parts of nature which are most proper for imitation: greater care is still required in representing life, which is so often discoloured by passion or deformed by wickedness. If the world be promiscuously described, I cannot see of what use it can be to read the account; or why it may not be as safe to turn the eye immediately upon mankind, as upon a mirror which shows all that presents itself without discrimination.

Such is the pleasure of projecting that many content themselves with a succession of visionary schemes, and wear out their allotted time in the calm amusement of contriving what they never attempt or hope to execute.