Pleasure is by much the most laborious trade I know, especially for those who have not a vocation to it.

Among the many evils which prevail under the sun, the abuse of words is not the least considerable. By the influence of time, and the perversion of fashion, the plainest and most unequivocal may be so altered, as to have a meaning assigned them almost diametrically opposite to their original signification.

To hint at a fault does more mischief than speaking out; for whatever is left for the imagination to finish will not fail to be overdone.

the modes of speech are scarcely more variable than the modes of silence.

The wretch who digs the mine for bread, or ploughs, that others may be fed, feels less fatigued than that decreed to him who cannot think or read.

Idleness among children, as among men, is the root of all evil, and leads to no other evil more certain than ill temper.

Imagination frames events unknown, In wild, fantastic shapes of hideous ruin, And what it fears creates.