A prudent and discreet Silence will be sometimes more to thy Advantage — Prudence

"Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity."

"Youre mistaken: men of sense often learn from their enemies. Prudence is the best safeguard. This principle cannot be learned from a friend, but an enemy extorts it immediately. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war. And this lesson saves their children, their homes, and their properties."

"Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy Rather in power than use, and keep thy friend Under thy own lifes key: be checkd for silence, But never taxd for speech."

"That system, again, which makes virtue consist in prudence only, while it gives the highest encouragement to the habits of caution, vigilance, sobriety, and judicious moderation, seems to degrade equally both the amiable and respectable virtues, and to strip the former of all their beauty, and the latter of all their grandeur."

"The last explanation remains to be made about prudence; Little and large alike drop quietly aside from the prudence that suits immortality."

"Think him as a serpents egg Which, hatchd, would, as his kind, grow mischievous, And kill him in the shell."