There must always be some advantage on one side or the other, and it is better that advantage should be had by talents than by chance.

The gratification of curiosity rather frees us from uneasiness than confers pleasure; we are more pained by ignorance than delighted by instruction. Curiosity is the thirst of the soul; it inflames and torments us, and makes us taste every thing with joy, however otherwise insipid, by which it may be quenched.

Life, however short, is made still shorter by waste of time.

Life is short. The sooner that a man begins to enjoy his wealth the better.

Had I learned to fiddle, I should have done nothing else.

Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.

We are unreasonably desirous to separate the goods of life from those evils which Providence has connected with them, and to catch advantages without paying the price at which they are offered to us. Every man wishes to be rich, but very few have the powers necessary to raise a sudden fortune, either by new discoveries, or by superiority of skill in any necessary employment; and among lower understandings many want the firmness and industry requisite to regular gain and gradual acquisitions.