All human excellence is but comparative — there are persons who excel us, as much as we fancy we excel the meanest.

The coyest maids make the fondest wives.

To what a bad choice is many a worthy woman betrayed, by that false and inconsiderate notion, That a reformed rake makes the best husband!

Every scholar, I presume, is not, necessarily, a man of sense.

The companion of an evening, and the companion for life, require very different qualifications.

All women, from the countess to the cook-maid, are put into high good humor with themselves when a man is taken with them at firstsight. And be they ever so plain, they will find twenty good reasons to defend the judgment of such a man.

I have my choice: who can wish for more? Free will enables us to do everything well while imposition makes a light burden heavy.