Cunning differs from wisdom as twilight from open day.

The appearance and retirement of actors are the great events of the theatrical world; and their first performances fill the pit with conjecture and prognostication, as the first actions of a new monarch agitate nations with hope and fear.

There is nothing against which an old man should be so much upon his guard as putting himself to nurse.

But the distant hope of being one day useful or eminent ought not to mislead us too far from that study which is equally requisite to the great and mean, to the celebrated and obscure; the art of moderating the desires, of repressing the appetites; and of conciliating or retaining the favour of mankind.

He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.

Hope is itself a species of happiness.

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.