As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly.

It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not willingly read, if they can have any thing els…

It might as well be said, 'Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat.'

I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me.

Certes, c'est un subject merveilleusement vain, divers, et ondoyant, que l'homme. Il est malaise d'y fonder jugement constant et uniforme.

The folly which we might have ourselves committed is the one which we are least ready to pardon in another.

All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.