The good of our present state is merely comparative, and the evil which every man feels will be sufficient to disturb and harass him if he does not know how much he escapes.

The wickedness of a loose or profane author is more atrocious than that of a giddy libertine or drunken ravisher, not only because it extends its effects wider, as a pestilence that taints the air is more destructive than poison infused in a draught, but because it is committed with cool deliberation.

Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.

Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.

He who would govern his actions by the laws of virtue must regulate his thoughts by those of reason.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

They whose activity of imagination is often shifting the scenes of expectation, are frequently subject to such sallies of caprice as make all their actions fortuitous, destroy the value of their friendship, obstruct the efficacy of their virtues, and set them below the meanest of those who persist in their resolutions, execute what they design, and perform what they have promised.