A man must not always tell all, for that be folly; but what a man says should be what he thinks.
There is no so wretched and coarse a soul wherein some particular faculty is not seen to shine.
How many worthy men have we known to survive their own reputation, who have seen and suffered the honor and glory most justly acquired in their youth, extinguished in their own presence?
Dreams are faithful interpreters of our inclinations; but there is art required to sort and understand them.
Intemperance is the plaque of sensuality, and temperance is not its bane but its seasoning.
Custom is a second nature, and no less powerful.
A hair shirt does not always render those chaste who wear it.
I must accommodate my history to the hour: I may presently change, not only by fortune, but also by intention.
The knowledge of courtesy and good manners is a very necessary study. It is like grace and beauty, that which begets liking and an inclination to love one another at the first sight.
Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy, inquiry the progress, ignorance the end.
The corruption of the age is made up by the particular contribution of every individual man; some contribute treachery, others injustice, atheism, tyranny, avarice, cruelty, according to their power.
We are never present with, but always beyond ourselves; fear, desire, hope, still push us on toward the future.
Nature is a gentle guide, but not more sweet and gentle than prudent and just.
The beauty of stature is the only beauty of men.
Getting married is very much like going to a restaurant with friends. You order what you want then when you see what the other person has, you wish you had ordered that.
Marriage can be compared to a cage: birds outside it despair to enter, and birds within, to escape.
A lady could not boast of her chastity who was never tempted.
All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.
Who feareth to suffer suffereth already, because he feareth.
It is the part of cowardliness, and not of virtue, to seek to squat itself in some hollow lurking hole, or to hide herself under some massive tomb, thereby to shun the strokes of fortune.