To be forward to praise others implies either great eminence, that can afford to, part with applause; or great quickness of discernment, with confidence in our own judgments; or great sincerity and love of truth, getting the better of our self-love.

To be happy, we must be true to nature and carry our age along with us.

We do not like our friends the worse because they sometimes give us an opportunity to rail at them heartily. Their faults reconcile us to their virtues.

To be wiser than other men is to be honester than they; and strength of mind is only courage to see and speak the truth.

What passes in the world for talent or dexterity or enterprise is often only a want of moral principle. We may succeed where others fail, not from a greater share of invention, but from not being nice in the choice of expedients.

A woman's vanity is interested in making the object of her choice the god of her idolatry.

Like a rustic at a fair, we are full of amazement and rapture, and have no thought of going home, or that it will soon be night.