[Preface to second edition:] ... I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be.

I possess the faculty of enjoying the company of those I - of my friends as well in silence as in conversation.

My soul is awakened, my spirit is soaring and carried aloft on the wings of the breeze.

Such humble talents as God had given me I will endeavour to put to their greatest use; if I am able to amuse, I will try to benefit too; and when I fell it my duty to speak unpalatable truth, with the help of God, I will speak it, through it be to the prejudice of my name and to the detriment of my reader's immediate pleasure as well as my own.

I cannot get him to write or speak in real, solid earnest. I don't much mind it now, but if it be always so, what shall I do with the serious part of myself?

All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry, shriveled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut.

But he that dares not grasp the thorn Should never crave the rose.