“Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed.”
“When all is done, human life is, at the greatest and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humored a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over.”
“When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don't, they don't.”
“Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.”
“Who ever converses among old books will be hard to please among the new.”
“No one ever was a great poet, that applied himself much to anything else.”
“The only way for a rich man to be healthy is by exercise and abstinence, to live as if he were poor.”
“The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit.”
“The first glass is for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good humor, and the forth for my enemies.”
“There cannot live a more unhappy creature than an ill-natured old man, who is neither capable of receiving pleasures, nor sensible of conferring them on others.”
“The best rules to form a young man, are, to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value others that deserve it.”
“The abilities of man must fall short on one side or the other, like too scanty a blanket when you are abed. If you pull it upon your shoulders, your feet are left bare; if you thrust it down to your feet, your shoulders are uncovered.”
“Our present time is indeed a criticizing and critical time, hovering between the wish, and the inability to believe. Our complaints are like arrows shot up into the air at no target: and with no purpose they only fall back upon our own heads and destroy ourselves.”