Bright and illustrious illusions! Who can blame, who laugh at the boy, who not admire and commend him, for that desire of a fame outlasting the Pyramids by which he insensibly learns to live in a life beyond the present, and nourish dreams of a good unattainable by the senses?

Alas! innocence is but a poor substitute for experience.

Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies.

There is no policy like politeness; and a good manner is the best thing in the world either to get a good name, or to supply the want of it.

Invention is nothing more than a fine deviation from, or enlargement on a fine model . . .

In families well ordered, there is always one firm, sweet temper, which controls without seeming to dictate. The Greeks represented Persuasion as crowned.

There's no weapon that slays its victim so surely (if well aimed) as praise.