Surely nothing is more reproachful to a being endowed with reason, than to resign its powers to the influence of the air, and live in dependence on the weather and the wind, for the only blessings which nature has put into our power, tranquillity and benevolence. To look up to the sky for the nutriment of our bodies, is the condition of nature; to call upon the sun for peace and gaiety, or deprecate the clouds lest sorrow should overwhelm us, is the cowardice of idleness, and the idolatry of folly.

As pride sometimes is hid under humility, idleness if often covered by turbulence and hurry.

This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among Lords.

Those authors are to be read at schools that supply most axioms of prudence.

Suspicion is most often useless pain.

There is no temper more unpropitious to interest than desultory application and unlimited inquiry, by which the desires are held in a perpetual equipoise, and the mind fluctuates between different purposes without determination.

No man should attempt to teach others what he has never learned himself