A Friend Exaggerates A Man's Virtues; An

It Generally Takes Its Rise Either From An Ill-will To Mankind, A Private Inclination To Make Ourselves Esteemed, An Ostentation Of Wit, And Vanity Of Being Thought In The Secrets Of The World; Or From A Desire Of Gratifying Any Of These Dispositions Of Mind In Those Persons With Whom We Converse.

A Man Must Be Excessively Stupid, As Well As Uncharitable, Who Believes That There Is No Virtue But On His Own Side, And That There Are Not Men As Honest As Himself Who May Differ From Him In Political Principles.

The Most Violent Appetites In All Creatures Are Lust And Hunger; The First Is A Perpetual Call Upon Them To Propagate Their Kind, The Latter To Preserve Themselves.

Content Thyself To Be Obscurely Good.

Method Is Not Less Requisite In Ordinary Conversation Than In Writing, Provided A Man Would Talk To Make Himself Understood.