No member of a society has a right to teach any doctrine contrary to what the society holds to be true.

Applause abates diligence.

Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content himself with such as his senses can afford.

We go from anticipation to anticipation, not from satisfaction to satisfaction.

It is not uncommon to charge the difference between promise and performance, between profession and reality, upon deep design and studied deceit; but the truth is, that there is very little hypocrisy in the world.

Piety is the only proper and adequate relief of decaying man. He that grows old without religions hopes, as he declines into imbecility, and feels pains and sorrows incessantly crowding upon him, falls into a gulf of bottomless misery, in which every reflection must plunge him deeper and deeper.

The pleasure of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it, and the completion of almost every wish is found a disappointment.