Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest.
The daughter-in-law of Pythagoras said that a woman who goes to bed with a man ought to lay aside her modesty with her skirt, and put it on again with her petticoat.
He whose mouth is out of taste says the wine is flat.
He was doubtless an understanding Fellow that said, there was no happy Marriage but betwixt a blind Wife and a deaf Husband.
We find our energies are actually cramped when we are overanxious to succeed.
The only thing certain is nothing is certain.
Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice; for indeed it seems we have no other test of truth and reason than the example and pattern of the opinions and customs of the country we live in.
Why dost thou complain of this world? It detains thee not; thy own cowardice is the cause, if thou livest in pain.
May God defend me from myself.
We should rather examine, who is better learned, than who is more learned.
I do not speak the minds of others except to speak my own mind better.
It is a thorny undertaking, and more so than it seems, to follow a movement so wandering as that of our mind, to penetrate the opaque depths of its innermost folds, to pick out and immobilize the innumerable flutterings that agitate it.
A man must always study, but he must not always go to school: what a contemptible thing is an old abecedarian!
Difficulty is a coin the learned make use of like jugglers, to conceal the inanity of their art.
I see several animals that live so entire and perfect a life, some without sight, others without hearing: who knows whether to us also one, two, or three, or many other senses, may not be wanting?
Thus we should beware of clinging to vulgar opinions, and judge things by reason’s way, not by popular say.
Satiety comes of too frequent repetition and he who will not give himself leisure to be thirsty can never find the true pleasure of drinking.
Whether the events in our life are good or bad, greatly depends on the way we perceive them.
Diogenes was asked what wine he liked best; and he answered as I would have done when he said, “Somebody else’s”.
Tortures are a dangerous invention, and seem to be a test of endurance rather than of truth.