It was easier to conquer it than to know what to do with it.
Let the French but have England, and they won’t want to conquer it.
The way to ensure summer in England is to have it framed and glazed in a comfortable room.
Who has begun has half done. Have the courage to be wise. Begin!
In science, mistakes always precede the truth.
I can forgive injuries, but never benefits.
The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.
I firmly believe, notwithstanding all our complaints, that almost every person upon earth tastes upon the totality more happiness than misery.
I do not dislike the French from the vulgar antipathy between neighboring nations, but for their insolent and unfounded air of superiority.
I shun authors, and would never have been one myself, if it obliged me to keep such bad company.
Serendipitous discoveries are made by chance, found without looking for them but possible only through a sharp vision and sagacity, ready to see the unexpected and never indulgent with the apparently unexplainable.
Life is a farce, and should not end with a mourning scene.
I avoid talking before the youth of the age as I would dancing before them: for if one’s tongue don’t move in the steps of the day, and thinks to please by its old graces, it is only an object of ridicule.
The passions seldom give good advice but to the interested and mercenary. Resentment generally suggests bad measures. Second thoughts and good nature will rarely, very rarely, approve the first hints of anger.
How posterity will laugh at us, one way or other! If half a dozen break their necks, and balloonism is exploded, we shall be called fools for having imagined it could be brought to use: if it should be turned to account, we shall be ridiculed for having doubted.
The best philosophy is to do one’s duties, take the world as it comes, submit respectfully to one’s lot; bless the goodness that has given us so much happiness with it.
Letters to absence can a voice impart, And lend a tongue when distance gags the heart.
Our bells are worn threadbare with ringing for victories.
Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.
We often repent of our first thoughts, and scarce ever of our second.