It should seem that indolence itself would incline a person to be honest, as it requires infinitely greater pains and contrivance to be a knave.

Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments.

Let the gulled fool the toil of war pursue, where bleed the many to enrich the few.

Second thoughts oftentimes are the very worst of all thoughts.

Let us be careful to distinguish modesty, which is ever amiable, from reserve, which is only prudent.

Anger and the thirst of revenge are a kind of fever; fighting and lawsuits, bleeding,--at least, an evacuation. The latter occasions a dissipation of money; the former, of those fiery spirits which cause a preternatural fermentation.

Critics must excuse me if I compare them to certain animals called asses, who, by gnawing vines, originally taught the great advantage of pruning them.