Those who have nothing else to recommend them to the respect of others but only their blood, cry it up at a great rate, and have their mouths perpetually full of it. They swell and vapor, and you are sure to hear of their families and relations every third word.

It is certainly much easier wholly to decline a passion than to keep it within just bounds and measures; and that which few can moderate almost anybody may prevent.

Riches should be admitted into our houses, but not into our hearts; we may take them into our possession, but not into our affections.

To owe an obligation to a worthy friend is a happiness, and can be no disparagement.

Wise men mingle mirth with their cares, as a help either to forget or overcome them; but to resort to intoxication for the ease of one's mind is to cure melancholy by madness.

He who receives a good turn should never forget it; he who does one should never remember it.

Pleasure and pain, though directly opposite, are yet so contrived by nature as to be constant companions; and it is a fact that the same motions and muscles of the face are employed both in laughing and crying.

Despair is like forward children, who, when you take away one of their playthings, throw the rest into the fire for madness. It grows angry with itself, turns its own executioner, and revenges its misfortunes on its own head.

The certain way to be cheated is to fancy one's self more cunning than others.

Great towns are but a large sort of prison to the soul, like cages to birds, or pounds to beasts.

We ought not to judge of men's merits by their qualifications, but by the use they make of them.