Deference often shrinks and withers as much upon the approach of intimacy as the sensitive plant does upon the touch of one's finger.

What leads to unhappiness is making pleasure the chief aim.

The works of a person that begin immediately to decay, while those of him who plants begin directly to improve. In this, planting promises a more lasting pleasure than building; which, were it to remain in equal perfection, would at best begin to moulder and want repairs in imagination. Now trees have a circumstance that suits our taste, and that is annual variety.

My banks they are furnish'd with bees, Whose murmur invites one to sleep.

Avarice is the most oppose of all characters to that of God Almighty, whose alone it is to give and not receive.

The difference there is betwixt honor and honesty seems to be chiefly the motive; the mere honest man does that from duty which the man of honor does for the sake of character.

Immoderate assurance is perfect licentiousness.