But, perhaps, the flatterer is not often detected; for an honest mind is not apt to suspect, and no one exerts the power of discernment with much vigour when selflove favors the deceit.

A family ... is a little kingdom, torn with factions and exposed to revolutions.

To exact of every man who writes that he should say something new, would be to reduce authors to a small number; to oblige the most fertile genius to say only what is new, would be to contract his volumes to a few pages. Yet, surely, there ought to be some bounds to repetition; libraries ought no more to be heaped for ever with the same thoughts differently expressed, than with the same books differently decorated.

Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

Of the present state, whatever it be, we feel and are forced to confess the misery; yet when the same state is again at a distance, imagination paints it as desirable.

Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.