Content thyself to be obscurely good.
A jealous man is very quick in his application: he knows how to find a double edge in an invective, and to draw a satire on himself out of a panegyrick on another.
There is not, in my opinion, anything more mysterious in nature than this instinct in animals, which thus rise above reason, and yet fall infinitely short of it.
I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the middle of Winter.
Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover, Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense.
Half the misery of human life might be extinguished if men would alleviate the general curse they lie under by mutual offices of compassion, benevolence, and humanity.
Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.
There is not a more pleasante exercise of the mind than gratitude.
Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter.
The man who lives by hope, will die by hunger.
Our disputants put me in mind of the cuttlefish that, when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens the water about him till he becomes invisible.
Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm.
There is not any present moment that is unconnected with some future one. The life of every man is a continued chain of incidents, each link of which hangs upon the former.
There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.
The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.
Jesters do often prove prophets.
Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man who owes his greatness to his country’s ruin!
A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.
To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.
Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.