There are those who never reason on what they should do, but what they have done; as if Reason had her eyes behind, and could only see backwards.
The prudence of the best heads is often defeated by tenderness of the best hearts.
Now in reality, the world has paid too great a compliment to critics, and has imagined them to be men of much greater profundity than they really are.
A good face they say, is a letter of recommendation. O Nature, Nature, why art thou so dishonest, as ever to send men with these false recommendations into the World!
Wit, like hunger, will be with great difficulty restrained from falling on vice and ignorance, where there is great plenty and variety of food.
To the generality of men you cannot give a stronger hint for them to impose upon you than by imposing upon yourself.
Some general officers should pay a stricter regard to truth than to call the depopulating other countries the service of their own.
Some virtuous women are too liberal in their insults to a frail sister; but virtue can support itself without borrowing any assistance from the vices of other women.
A wonder lasts but nine days, and then the puppy’s eyes are open.
We are as liable to be corrupted by books, as by companions.
No one hath seen beauty in its highest lustre who hath never seen it in distress.
A comic writer should of all others be the least excused for deviating from nature, since it may not be always so easy for a serious poet to meet with the great and the admirable; but life every where furnishes an accurate observer with the ridiculous.
Money will say more in one moment than the most eloquent lover can in years.
Money is the fruit of evil, as often as the root of it.
It is not from nature, but from education and habits, that our wants are chiefly derived.
Conscience – the only incorruptible thing about us.
I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more.
Distance of time and place generally cure what they seem to aggravate; and taking leave of our friends resembles taking leave of the world, of which it has been said, that it is not death, but dying, which is terrible.
With the latitude of unbounded scurrility, it is easy enough to attain the character of a wit, especially when it is considered how wonderfully pleasant it is to the generality of the public to see the folly of their acquaintance exposed by a third person.
There is nothing a man of good sense dreads in a wife so much as her having more sense than himself.