[Every] hour of delay abates the fame and force of the invader, and multiplies the resources of defensive war.

The pains and pleasures of the body, howsoever important to ourselves, are an indelicate subject of conversation

In the productions of the mind, as in those of the soil, the gifts of nature are excelled by industry and skill . . .

[We should] suspend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man.

I understand by this passion the union of desire, friendship, and tenderness, which is inflamed by a single female, which prefers her to the rest of her sex, and which seeks her possession as the supreme or the sole happiness of our being.

When Julian ascended the throne, he declared his impatience to embrace and reward the Syrian sophist, who had preserved, in a degenerate age, the Grecian purity of taste, of manners and of religion. The emperor's prepossession was increased and justified by the discreet pride of his favourite.

The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature.