Friends are often chosen for similitude of manners, and therefore each palliates the other's failings because they are his own.

Sir, I have no objection to a man's drinking wine, if he can do it in moderation. I found myself apt to go to excess in it, and therefore, after having been for some time without it, on account of illness, I thought it better not to return to it. Every man is to judge for himself, according to the effects which he experiences.

Every man that has felt pain knows how little all other comforts can gladden him to whom health is denied. Yet who is there does not sometimes hazard it for the enjoyment of an hour?

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

In general those parents have the most reverence who most deserve it; for he that lives well cannot be despised.

There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.

What is good only because it pleases cannot be pronounced good till it has been found to please.