General irregularities are known in time to remedy themselves. By the constitution of ancient Egypt, the priesthood was continually increasing, till at length there was no people beside themselves; the establishment was then dissolved, and the number of priests was reduced and limited. Thus among us, writers will, perhaps, be multiplied, till no readers will be found, and then the ambition of writing must necessarily cease.

That man is never happy for the present is so true, that all his relief from unhappiness is only forgetting himself for a little while. Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.

The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.

The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.

As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.

He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.