Men often think to conduct and govern themselves, when all the while they are led and manag’d; and while their Understanding aims at one thing, their Heart insensibly draws them into another.

Great Souls are not distinguish’d by having less Passion, and more Virtue; but by having nobler and greater Designs than the Vulgar.

We allow few Men to be either Witty or Reasonable, besides those who are of our own Opinion.

We are as much pleas’d to discover another Man’s Mind, as we are discontented to have our own found out.

A straight and well-contriv’d Mind, finds it easier to yield to a perverse one, than to direct and manage it.

Coxcombs are never so troublesome, as when they pretend to Wit.

A little Wit with Discretion, tires less at long-run, than much Wit without Judgment.

Nothing comes amiss to a great Soul; and there is as much Wisdom in bearing other People’s Defects, as in relishing their good Qualities.

It argues a great heighth of Judgment in a Man, to discover what is in another’s Breast, and to conceal what is in his own.

If Poverty be the Mother of Wickedness, want of Wit must be the Father.

* A Mind that has no Ballance in it self, turns insolent, or abject, out of measure, with the various Change of Fortune.

* Our Memories are frail and treacherous; and we think many excellent things, which for want of making a deep impression, we can never recover afterwards.  In vain we hunt for the stragling Idea, and rummage all the Solitudes and Retirements of our Soul, for a lost Thought, which has left no Track or Foot-steps behind it:  The swift Off-spring of the Mind is gone; ’tis dead as soon as born; nay, often proves abortive in the moment it was conceiv’d:  The only way therefore to retain our Thoughts, is to fasten them in Words, and chain them in Writing.

* A Man is never so great a Dunce by Nature, but Love, Malice, or Necessity, will supply him with some Wit.

* There is a Defect which is almost unavoidable in great Inventors; it is the Custom of such earnest and powerful Minds, to do wonderful Things in the beginning; but shortly after, to be over-born by the Multitude and Weight of their own Thoughts; then to yield and cool by little and little, and at last grow weary, and even to loath that, upon which they were at first the most eager.  This is the wonted Constitution of great Wits; such tender things are those exalted Actions of the Mind; and so hard it is for those Imaginations, that can run swift and mighty Races, to be able to travel a long and constant Journey.  The Effects of this Infirmity have been so remarkable, that we have certianly lost very many Inventions, after they have been in part fashion’d, by the meer Languishing and Negligence of their Authors.