When any calamity is suffered, the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

Every man prefers virtue, when there is not some strong incitement to transgress its precepts.

No one ever became great by imitation.

It seems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unrestrained, because writers may be afterwards censured, than it would be to sleep with doors unbolted, because by our laws we can hang a thief.

I would injure no man, and should provoke no resentment. I would relieve every distress, and should enjoy the benedictions of gratitude. I would choose my friends among the wise and my wife among the virtuous, and therefore should be in no danger from treachery or unkindness. My children should by my care be learned and pious, and would repay to my age what their childhood had received.

It is astonishing that any man can forbear enquiring seriously whether there is a God; whether God is just; whether this life is the only state of existence.