here can be no situation in life in which the conversation of my dear sister will not administer some comfort to me

Remember my unalterable maxim, When we love, we always have something to say

Prudent people are very happy; 'tis an exceeding fine thing, that's certain, but I was born without it, and shall retain to my day of Death the Humour of saying what I think

The manners of mankind do not differ so widely as our voyage writers would make us believe. Perhaps it would be more entertaining to add a few surprising customs of my own invention, but nothing seems to me so agreeable as truth

Intelligence has no attachment to the opinion it has formed, but only to the truth it may contain and, knowing that error insinuates itself under the guise of truth, through the same inlets by which truth is admitted, it is ever diffident of its att

I prefer liberty to chains of diamonds.

The knowledge of numbers is one of the chief distinctions between us and the brutes

There is nothing can pay one for that invaluable ignorance which is the companion of youth, those sanguine groundless hopes, and that lively vanity which makes all the happiness of life

'Tis a sort of duty to be rich, that it may be in one's power to do good, riches being another word for power

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