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.

If I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the better of this by saying many things to please him.

I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.

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.

Every man has something to do which he neglects, every man has faults to conquer which he delays to combat.

There are occasions on which all apology is rudeness.

Unless a woman has an amorous heart, she is a dull companion.