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| He that descends not to word it with a shrew does worse than beat her. | 1 |
| In saying aye or no, the very safety of our country and the sum of our well-being lies. | 2 |
| Intemperate wits will spare neither friend nor foe, and make themselves the common enemies of mankind. | 3 |
| It is downright madness to contend where we are sure to be worsted. | 4 |
| It is fancy, not the reason of things, that makes us so uneasy. | 5 |
| It is not advisable to reward where men have the tenderness not to punish. | 6 |
| Judgments that are made on the wrong side of the danger amount to no more than an affectation of skill, without either credit or effect. | 7 |
| One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honourable life. | 8 |
| Some people are all quality: you would think they were made up of nothing but title and genealogy. The stamp of dignity defaces in them the very character of humanity, and transports them to such a degree of haughtiness that they reckon it below themselves to exercise either good-nature or good manners. | 9 |
| Some read books only with a view to find fault, while others read only to be taught; the former are like venomous spiders, extracting a poisonous quality, where the latter, like the bees, sip out a sweet and profitable juice. | 10 |
| The devil helps his servants for a season; but when they come once to a pinch, he leaves ’em in the lurch. | 11 |
| The fox puts off all with a jest. | 12 |
| The greatest of all injustice is that which goes under the name of law. | 13 |
| The prisoner is troubled that he cannot go whither he would, and he that is at large is troubled that he does not know whither to go. | 14 |
| The timing of things is a main point in the dispatch of all affairs. | 15 |
| The wise man will commit no business of importance to a proxy when he may do it himself. | 16 |
| There is more danger in a reserved and silent friend than in a noisy babbling enemy. | 17 |
| There is not one grain in the universe, either too much or too little, nothing to be added, nothing to be spared; nor so much as any one particle of it, that mankind may not be either the better or the worse for, according as it is applied. | 18 |
| Those deserve to be doubly laughed at that are peevish and angry for nothing to no purpose. | 19 |
| Two pots stood by a river, one of brass, the other of clay; the water carried them away; the earthen vessel kept aloof from the other. | 20 |
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| We are apt to pick quarrels with the world for every little foolery. | 21 |
| We are not to quarrel with the water for inundations and shipwrecks. | 22 |
| We’ll stand up for our properties, was the beggar’s song, that lived upon the alms-basket. | 23 |
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