Liberty is, to the lowest rank of every nation, little more than the choice of working or starving.

Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections their author.

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.

The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality.

I inherited a vile melancholy from my father, which has made me mad all my life, at least not sober.

Before dinner men meet with great inequality of understanding; and those who are conscious of their inferiority have the modesty not to talk; when they have drunk wine, every man feels himself happy, and loses that modesty, and grows impudent and vociferous; but he is not improved; he is only not sensible of his defects.

Truth, such as is necessary to the reputation of life, is always found where it is honestly sought.