There is nothing more universally commended than a fine day; the reason is that people can commend it without envy.

Fools are very often united in the strictest intimacies, as the lighter kinds of woods are the most closely glued together.

The regard one shows economy, is like that we show an old aunt who is to leave us something at last.

A fool and his words are soon parted.

When misfortunes happen to such as dissent from us in matters of religion, we call them judgments; when to those of our own sect, we call them trials; when to persons neither way distinguished, we are content to attribute them to the settled course of things.

Some men use no other means to acquire respect than by insisting on it; and it sometimes answers their purpose, as it does a highwayman's in regard to money.

In designing a house and gardens, it is happy when there is an opportunity of maintaining a subordination of parts; the house so luckily place as to exhibit a view of the whole design. I have sometimes thought that there was room for it to resemble a epic or dramatic poem.