In the loss of an object we do not proportion our grief to the real value it bears, but to the value our fancies set upon it

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In private conversation between intimate friends, the wisest men very often talk like the weakest; for indeed the talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud

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If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter

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If we look into communities and divisions of men, we observe that the discreet man, not the witty, nor the learned, nor the brave, guides the conversation, and gives measure to society

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If men would consider not so much where they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling in the world

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If friends to a government forbear their assistance, they put it in the power of a few desperate men to ruin the welfare of those who are superior to them in strength and interest

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I never knew a critic who made it his business to lash the faults of other writers that was not guilty of greater himself - as the hangman is generally a worse malefactor than the criminal that suffers by his hand

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I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species

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Hypocrisy itself does great honor, or rather justice, to religion, and tacitly acknowledges it to be an ornament to human nature. The hypocrite would not be at so much pains to put on the appearance of virtue, if he did not know it was the most proper and effectual means to gain the love and esteem of mankind

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Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty; but beauty cannot supply the absence of good nature

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