Every man is prompted by the love of himself to imagine that he possesses some qualities superior, either in kind or degree, to those which he sees allotted to the rest of the world.

Sir, I do not call a gamester a dishonest man; but I call him an unsociable man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good.

Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

Language is the dress of thought; and as the noblest mien or most graceful action would be degraded and obscured by a garb appropriated to the gross employments of rusticks or mechanics, so the most heroick sentiments will lose their efficacy

Every state of society is as luxurious as it can be. Men always take the best they can get.

You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written.

The public pleasures of far the greater part of mankind are counterfeit.