Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections of their author. To confer duration is not always in our power. We must snatch the present moment, and employ it well, without too much solicitude for the future, and content ourselves with reflecting that our part is performed. He that waits for an opportunity to do much at once, may breathe out his life in idle wishes, and regret, in the last hour, his useless intentions and barren zeal.

You despise a man for avarice; but you do not hate him.

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

In most ages many countries have had part of their inhabitants in a state of slavery; yet it may be doubted whether slavery can ever be supposed the natural condition of man. It is impossible not to conceive that men in their original state were equal; and very difficult to imagine how one would be subjected to another but by violent compulsion. An individual may, indeed, forfeit his liberty by a crime; but he cannot by that crime forfeit the liberty of his children.

It is incident to physicians, I am afraid, beyond all other men, to mistake subsequence for consequence.

Riches exclude only one inconvenience,--that is, poverty.

Nothing odd will do long. Tristram Shandy did not last.