Language is the dress of thought; and as the noblest mien or most graceful action would be degraded and obscured by a garb appropriated to the gross employments of rusticks or mechanics, so the most heroick sentiments will lose their efficacy

The most useful truths are always universal, and unconnected with accidents and customs.

As the greatest liar tells more truths than falsehoods, so may it be said of the worst man, that he does more good than evil.

The king who makes war on his enemies tenderly distresses his subjects most cruelly.

Avarice is always poor.

It is justly considered as the greatest excellency of art to imitate nature; but it is necessary to distinguish those parts of nature which are most proper for imitation: greater care is still required in representing life, which is so often discoloured by passion or deformed by wickedness. If the world be promiscuously described, I cannot see of what use it can be to read the account; or why it may not be as safe to turn the eye immediately upon mankind, as upon a mirror which shows all that presents itself without discrimination.

Every human being whose mind is not debauched, will be willing to give all that he has to get knowledge.