Horse-play, romping, frequent and loud fits of laughter, jokes, and indiscriminate familiarity, will sink both merit and knowledge into a degree of contempt. They compose at most a merry fellow; and a merry fellow was never yet a respectable man.
Never hold anyone by the button or the hand in order to be heard out; for if people are unwilling to hear you, you had better hold your tongue than them.
No man tastes pleasures truly, who does not earn them by previous business; and few people do business well, who do nothing else.
Buy good books, and read them; the best books are the commonest, and the last editions are always the best, if the editors are not blockheads.
Most maxim-mongers have preferred the prettiness to the justness of a thought, and the turn to the truth; but I have refused myself to everything that my own experience did not justify and confirm.
The value of moments, when cast up, is immense, if well employed; if thrown away, their loss is irrevocable.
Without some dissimulation no business can be carried on at all.
Whoever plays deep must necessarily lose his money or his character.
When you have found out the prevailing passion of any man, remember never to trust him where that passion is concerned.
Good manners are the settled medium of social, as specie is of commercial, life; returns are equally expected for both.
Little secrets are commonly told again, but great ones generally kept.
Those who see and observe kings, heroes, and statesmen, discover that they have headaches, indigestion, humors and passions, just like other people; every one of which in their turns determine their wills in defiance of their reason.
Men are much more unwilling to have their weaknesses and their imperfections known than their crimes.
To please people is a great step towards persuading them.
Whenever I go to an opera, I leave my sense and reason at the door with my half-guinea, and deliver myself up to my eyes and my ears.
Few men are of one plain, decided color; most are mixed, shaded, and blended; and vary as much, from different situations, as changeable silks do from different lights.
Enjoy pleasures, but let them be your own, and then you will taste them.
Since attaining the full use of my reason no one has ever heard me laugh.
To know a little of anything gives neither satisfaction nor credit, but often brings disgrace or ridicule.
It is good breeding alone that can prepossess people in your favor at first sight, more time being necessary to discover greater talents.