The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.

Language is the pedigree of nations.

Politeness is fictitious benevolence.

Keeping accounts, sir, is of no use when a man is spending his own money, and has nobody to whom he is to account. You won't eat less beef today because you have written down what it cost yesterday.

Pity is not natural to man. Children and savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason. We may have uneasy sensations from seeing a creature in distress, without pity; but we have not pity unless we wish to relieve him.

People in distress never think that you feel enough.

Curiosity is one of the most certain and permanent characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance.