Brutes find out where their talents lie; a bear will not attempt to fly.
A secret is seldom safe in more than one breast.
Under the rose, since here are none but friends, To own the truth we have some private ends.
When I am in danger of bursting, I will go and whisper among the reeds.
Liberty of conscience is nowadays only understood to be the liberty of believing what men please, but also of endeavoring to propagate that belief as much as they can.
Ay, do despise me, I’m the prouder for it; I like to be despised.
Possession, they say, is eleven points of the law.
Common fluency of speech in many men and most women is owing to a scarcity of matter.
Flattery is the worst and falsest way of showing our esteem.
Bread is the staff of life.
All panegyrics are mingled with an infusion of poppy.
A stander-by may sometimes, perhaps, see more of the game than he that plays it.
Old men and comets have been reverenced for the same reason: their long beards, and pretences to foretell events.
Life is a tragedy wherein we sit as spectators for a while and then act our part in it.
Few are qualified to shine in company, but it is in most men’s power to be agreeable.
A nice man is a man of nasty ideas.
If the men of wit and genius would resolve never to complain in their works of critics and detractors, the next age would not know that they ever had any.
It is as hard to satirize well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguished virtues.
Two friendships in two breasts requires The same aversions and desires.
There is no vice which humankind carries to such wild extremes as that of avarice.