"The circumstance which gives authors an advantage above all these great masters, is this, that they can multiply their originals; or rather, can make copies of their works, to what number they please, which shall be as valuable as the originals themselves."

"Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature."

"A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most real blessings or misfortunes."

"Authors have established it as a kind of rule, that a man ought to be dull sometimes; as the most severe reader makes allowances for many rests and nodding places in a voluminous writer."

"A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next to escape the censures of the world: if the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public: a man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict which he passes upon his own behaviour is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him."

"Much might be said on both sides."

"The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger: the first is a perpetual call upon them to propogate their kind; the latter to preserve themselves."

"Animals in their generation are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass."

"When I consider the Question, Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches? my Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions; or rather (to speak my Thoughts freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been such a thing as Witchcraft; but at the same time can give no Credit to any Particular Instance of it."

"Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act with cheerfulness."

"Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week."

"If men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve. In a word, the man in a high post is never regarded with an indifferent eye, but always considered as a friend or an enemy. For this reason persons in great stations have seldom their true characters drawn till several years after their deaths. Their personal friendships and enmities must cease, and the parties they were engaged in be at an end, before their faults or their virtues can have justice done them. When writers have the least opportunity of knowing the truth, they are in the best disposition to tell it. It is therefore the privilege of posterity to adjust the characters of illustrious persons, and to set matters right between those antagonists who by their rivalry for greatness divided a whole age into factions."

""Censure," says a late ingenious author, "is the tax a man plays for being eminent." It is a folly for an eminent man to think of escaping it, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no defense against reproach but obscurity; it is a kind of comitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph."

"Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heaven we have below."

"There is not so variable a thing in Nature as a lady's head-dress."

"Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors."

"A man that has a taste of music, painting, or architecture, is like one that has another sense, when compared with such as have no relish of those arts."

"There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol."

"In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow, Thou 'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow, Hast so much wit and mirth and spleen about thee, There is no living with thee, nor without thee."

"It is indeed very possible, that the Persons we laugh at may in the main of their Characters be much wiser Men than our selves; but if they would have us laugh at them, they must fall short of us in those Respects which stir up this Passion."

"The Fear of Death often proves Mortal, and sets People on Methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them."

"That nothing is capable of being well set to Musick, that is not Nonsense."

"True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions."

"I shall endeavor to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality."

"I would... earnestly advise them for their good to order this paper to be punctually served up, and to be looked upon as a part of the tea equipage."

"To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude."

"Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species."

"If I can any way contribute to the diversion or improvement of the country in which I live, I shall leave it, when I am summoned out of it, with the secret satisfaction of thinking that I have not lived in vain."

"Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence, of this virtue."

"Charity is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands."

"The sense of honour is of so fine and delicate a nature, that it is only to be met with in minds which are naturally noble, or in such as have been cultivated by good examples, or a refined education."

"A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves a constant ease and serenity within us, and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can possibly befall us."

"Blessings may appear under the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let him have patience, and he will see them in their proper figures."

"Courage that grows from constitution very often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it, and when it is only a kind of instinct in the Soul breaks out on all occasions without judgment or discretion. That courage which proceeds from the sense of our duty, and from the fear of offending Him that made us, acts always in a uniform manner, and according to the dictates of right reason."

"When I read the rules of criticism, I immediately inquire after the works of the author who has written them, and by that means discover what it is he likes in a composition."

"Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another."

"Justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is therefore always represented as blind."

"To be perfectly just is an attribute in the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man."

"There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice."

"From hence, let fierce contending nations know, What dire effects from civil discord flow."

"Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man."

"What means this heaviness that hangs upon me? This lethargy that creeps through all my senses? Nature, oppress'd and harrass'd out with care, Sinks down to rest."

"The soul, secured in her existence, smiles At the drawn dagger, and defies its point."

"The ideal man bears the accidents of life With dignity and grace, the best of circumstances."

"Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly."

"I'm weary of conjectures,—this must end 'em. Thus am I doubly armed: my death and life, My bane and antidote, are both before me: This in a moment brings me to an end; But this informs me I shall never die. The soul, secured in her existence, smiles At the drawn dagger, and defies its point. The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years; But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the war of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds."

"Eternity! thou pleasing dreadful thought! Through what variety of untried being, Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!"

"It must be so — Plato, thou reasonest well! Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, This longing after immortality? Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, O falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 'Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 'Tis heaven itself, that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man."

"If there's a power above us, (And that there is all nature cries aloud Through all her works) he must delight in virtue."

"The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds."