Waning moons their settled periods keep, to swell the billows and ferment the deep.
Life is not long enough for a coquette to play all her tricks in.
Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable.
The end of a man’s life is often compared to the winding up of a well written play, where the principal persons still act in character, whatever the fate in which they undergo.
See in what peace a Christian can die.
Whether zeal or moderation be the point we aim at, let us keep the fire out of the one, and the frost out of the other.
The friendships of the world are oft confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasures.
Nature delights in the most plain and simple diet.
There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country.
Men who cherish for women the highest respect are seldom popular with them.
Prejudice and self-sufficiency naturally proceed from inexperience of the world, and ignorance of mankind.
Temperance gives nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor.
If men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve.
As vivacity is the gift of woman, gravity is that of men.
I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as an act, the former as a habit of mind. Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent.
There is no kind of false wit which has been so recommended by the practice of all ages, as that which consists in a jingle of words, and is comprehended under the general name of punning.
Our sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses. It fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the greatest distance, and continues the longest in action without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoyments.
A misery is not to be measure from the nature of the evil but from the temper of the sufferer.
A true critic ought to dwell rather upon excellencies than imperfections.
Facts are plain spoken; hopes and figures are its aversion.