One of the amusements of idleness is reading without fatigue of close attention; and the world, therefore, swarms with writers whose wish is not to be studied, but to be read.

In youth, it is common to measure right and wrong by the opinion of the world, and in age, to act without any measure but interest, and to lose shame without substituting virtue.

There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.

A person loves to review his own mind. That is the use of a diary, or journal.

A man had rather have a hundred lies told of him than one truth which he does not wish should be told.

Apologies are seldom of any use.

There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful.