to diminish expectation is to increase enjoyment.

Travelling is the ruin of all happiness. There's no looking at a building here after seeing Italy.

Tis best to build no castles in the air.

I have this very moment finished reading a novel called The Vicar of Wakefield [by Oliver Goldsmith].... It appears to me, to be impossible any person could read this book through with a dry eye and yet, I don't much like it.... There is but very little story, the plot is thin, the incidents very rare, the sentiments uncommon, the vicar is contented, humble, pious, virtuous--but upon the whole the book has not at all satisfied my expectations.

Generosity without delicacy, like wit without judgment, generally gives as much pain as pleasure.

Imagination took the reins, and reason, slow-paced, though sure-footed, was unequal to a race with so eccentric and flighty a companion.

But if the young are never tired of erring in conduct, neither are the older in erring of judgment.