You may ... make a little recreation of poetry, in the midst of your painful studies. Nevertheless, I cannot but advise you. Withhold thy throat from thirst. Be not so set upon poetry, as to be always poring on the passionate and measured pages. ... let not the Circean cup intoxicate you.
Cotton MatherWilderness is a temporary condition through which we are passing to the Promised Land.
Cotton MatherCharity ... is kind, it is not easily provok'd, it thinks no evil, it believes all things, hopes all things.
Cotton Mather