Some children act as if they thought their parents had nothing to do, but to see them established in the world and then quit it.

Whenever we approve, we can find a hundred good reasons to justify our approbation. Whenever we dislike, we can find a thousand to justify our dislike.

The world, the wise world, that never is wrong itself, judges always by events. And if he should use me ill, then I shall be blamed for trusting him: if well, O then I did right, to be sure!--But how would my censurers act in my case, before the event justifies or condemns the action, is the question.

The little words in the Republic of Letters, like the little folks in a nation, are the most useful and significant.

I know not my own heart if it be not absolutely free.

Parents cannot expect advice to have the same force upon their children as experience has upon themselves.

Friendship is the perfection of love, and superior to love; it is love purified, exalted, proved by experience and a consent of minds. Love, Madam, may, and love does, often stop short of friendship.