Satire should, like a polished razor keen, Wound with a touch that's scarcely felt or seen..

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting..

You can be pleased with nothing if you are not pleased with yourself..

General notions are generally wrong..

People are never so near playing the fool as when they think themselves wise..

In short I will part with anything for you but you..

I prefer liberty to chains of diamonds..

But the fruit that can fall without shaking Indeed is too mellow for me..

We are educated in the grossest ignorance, and no art omitted to stifle our natural reason; if some few get above their nurses instructions, our know….

Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet; In short, my deary, kiss me, and be quiet..

My chief study all my life has been to lighten misfortunes and multiply pleasures, as far as human nature can..

It was formerly a terrifying view to me that I should one day be an old woman. I now find that Nature has provided pleasures for every state..

Life is too short for a long story.

Take back the beauty and wit you bestow upon me; leave me my own mediocrity of agreeableness and genius, but leave me also my sincerity, my constancy….

It is 11 years since I have seen my figure in a glass [mirror]. The last reflection I saw there was so disagreeable I resolved to spare myself such m….

Whoever will cultivate their own mind will find full employment. Every virtue does not only require great care in the planting, but as much daily sol….

Solitude begets whimsies..

I am afraid we are little better than straws upon the water; we may flatter ourselves that we swim, when the current carries us along..

Gardening is certainly the next amusement to reading..

True knowledge consists in knowing things, not words..

Nature is seldom in the wrong, custom always..