Nothing is so firmly believed, as what we least know.

Every abridgement of a good book is a stupid abridgement.

I seek in the reading of books, only to please myself, by an honest diversion.

We find ourselves more taken with the running up and down, the games, and puerile simplicities of our children, than we do, afterward, with their most complete actions; as if we had loved them for our sport, like monkeys, and not as men.

Tis faith alone that vividly and certainly comprehends the deep mysteries of our religion.

An ancient father says that a dog we know is better company than a man whose language we do not understand.

The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom.

For table-talk, I prefer the pleasant and witty before the learned and the grave; in bed, beauty before goodness.

The corruption of the age is made up by the particular contribution of every individual man; some contribute treachery, others injustice, irreligion, tyranny, avarice, cruelty, according to their power.

We every day and every hour say things of another that we might more properly say of ourselves, could we but apply our observations to our own concerns.