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

I know not, Madam, that you have a right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much.

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

As the greatest liar tells more truths than falsehoods, so may it be said of the worst man, that he does more good than evil.

A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write. The regard of the public is not to be kept but by tribute, and the remembrance of past service will quickly languish unless successive performances frequently revive it. Yet in every new attempt there is new hazard, and there are few who do not, at some unlucky time, injure their own characters by attempting to enlarge them.

Locke, whom there is no reason to suspect of being a favorer of idleness or libertinism, has advanced that whoever hopes to employ any part of his time with efficacy and vigor must allow some of it to pass with trifles.

Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously, and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else.