The thing is plain. All that men really understand, is confined to a very small compass; to their daily affairs and experience; to what they have an opportunity to know, and motives to study or practice. The rest is affectation and imposture.

Without life there can be no action — no objects of pursuit — no restless desires — no tormenting passions. Hence it is that we fondly cling to it — that we dread its termination as the close, not of enjoyment, but of hope.

Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses.

Almost every sect of Christianity is a perversion of its essence, to accommodate it to the prejudices of the world.

Weakness has its hidden resources, as well as strength. There is a degree of folly and meanness which we cannot calculate upon, and by which we are as much liable to be foiled as by the greatest ability or courage.

Man is a poetical animal, and delights in fiction.

Poverty is the test of civility and the touchstone of friendship.