Levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.

Pity is not natural to man. Children are always cruel. Savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason. We may have uneasy sensations from seeing a creature in distress, without pity; for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them.

When a man marries a widow his jealousies revert to the past: no man is as good as his wife says her first husband was

He who would govern his actions by the laws of virtue must regulate his thoughts by those of reason.

But though it cannot be reasonable not to gain happiness for fear of losing it, yet it must be confessed, that in proportion to the pleasure of possession, will be for some time our sorrow for the loss.

Hope itself is a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords; but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain.

The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion.