Few men survey themselves with so much severity as not to admit prejudices in their own favor.

No man is defeated without some resentment which will be continued with obstinacy while he believes himself in the right, and asserted with bitterness, if even to his own conscience he is detected in the wrong.

A continual feast of commendation is only to be obtained by merit or by wealth: many are therefore obliged to content themselves with single morsels, and recompense the infrequency of their enjoyment by excess and riot, whenever fortune sets the banquet before them.

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

Slavery is now nowhere more patiently endured, than in countries once inhabited by the zealots of liberty.

If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?

Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.