I live in the crowd of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.

The purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy the power of pleasing must be blown aside

It may be laid down as a position which seldom deceives, that when a man cannot bear his own company, there is something wrong.

By forbearing to do what may innocently be done, we may add hourly new vigor to resolution.

A man is not obliged honestly to answer a question which should not properly be put.

It is certain that success naturally confirms in us a favourable opinion of our own abilities. Scarce any man is willing to allot to accident, friendship, and a thousand causes, which concur in every event without human contrivance or interposition, the part which they may justly claim in his advancement. We rate ourselves by our fortune rather than our virtues, and exorbitant claims are quickly produced by imaginary merit.

When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.