A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.

He who expects much will be often disappointed; yet disappointment seldom cures us of expectation, or has any other effect than that of producing a moral sentence or peevish exclamation.

The number of such as live without the ardour of inquiry is very small, though many content themselves with cheap amusements, and waste their lives in researches of no importance.

The uncertainty of death is, in effect, the great support of the whole system of life.

I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.

Advice, as it always gives a temporary appearance of superiority, can never be very grateful, even when it is most necessary or most judicious. But for the same reason everyone is eager to instruct his neighbours. To be wise or to be virtuous is to buy dignity and importance at a high price; but when nothing is necessary to elevation but detection of the follies or faults of others, no man is so insensible to the voice of fame as to linger on the ground.

Parents are by no means exempt from the intoxication of dominion.