The lack of belief is a defect that ought to be concealed when it cannot be overcome.

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.

What some people invent the rest enlarge.

There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake.

Pretense is the overrating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.

What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not do we are told expressly.

And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.

As blushing will sometimes make a whore pass for a virtuous woman, so modesty may make a fool seem a man of sense.

He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put into vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw, inclement summers.

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child, well nursed, is at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.