A cheerful temper joined with innocence will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful and wit good-natured.
There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none so useful as discretion; it is this, indeed, which gives a value to all the rest, which sets them at work in their proper times and places, and turns them to the advantage of the person who is possessed of them. Without it, learning is pedantry, and wit impertinence; virtue itself looks like weakness; the best parts only
qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice.
The greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge: for men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and
most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men
The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.