True disputants are like true sportsmen: their whole delight is in the pursuit.

Extremes in nature equal ends produce; In man they join to some mysterious use.

Therefore they who say our thoughts are not our own because they resemble the Ancients, may as well say our faces are not our own, because they are like our Fathers: And indeed it is very unreasonable, that people should expect us to be Scholars, and yet be angry to find us so.

A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.

True Wit is Nature to advantage dress'd What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd; Something whose truth convinced at sight we find, That gives us back the image of our mind. As shades more sweetly recommend the light, So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit.

Devotion's self shall steal a thought from heaven.

I was not born for courts and great affairs, but I pay my debts, believe and say my prayers.