It may be laid down as a position which seldom deceives, that when a man cannot bear his own company, there is something wrong.

No mind is much employed upon the present; recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.

Pride is seldom delicate, it will please itself with very mean advantages; and envy feels not its own happiness, but when it may be compared with the misery of others

No man can have much kindness for him by whom he does not believe himself esteemed, and nothing so evidently proves esteem as imitation.

All unnecessary vows are folly, because they suppose a prescience of the future, which has not been given us.

Lawful and settled authority is very seldom resisted when it is well employed.

The fiction of happiness is propagated by every tongue and confirmed by every look till at last all profess the joy which they do not feel and consent to yield to the general delusion.