If they who understand the utmost refinement of any art will enjoy the perfection of it in a manner superior to other men, will they not amply pay for that advantage in feeling more than other men the imperfection of it, which in the natural course of things must so much oftener fall in their way?

No fruit has a more precise marked period of maturity, than love; if neglected to be gathered at that time, it will certainly fall to the ground and die away.

It is so much in the nature of men to overreach and deceive one another, that their very sports and plays are founded on that principle.

It has been said that the beauties of the mind are valuable because they are more lasting than those of the body; but I do not remember to have heard it said that the beauties of the mind are valuable because they make those of the body more lasting.

There are sometimes beauties in a character which would never have appeared but for a defect, and defects which would never have appeared but for a beauty.

Man is the only creature endowed with the power of laughter; is he not also the only one that deserves to be laughed at?

The mind's eye is perhaps no better fitted for the full radiance of truth, than is the body's for that of the sun.