Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.

We often repent of our first thoughts, and scarce ever of our second.

It amazes me when I hear any person prefer blindness to deafness. Such a person must have a terrible dread of being alone. Blindness makes one totally dependent on others, and deprives us of every satisfaction that results from light.

Dr. Calder [a Unitarian minister] said of Dr. [Samuel] Johnson on the publications of Boswell and Mrs. Piozzi, that he was like Actaeon, torn to pieces by his own pack.

Letters to absence can a voice impart, And lend a tongue when distance gags the heart.

Men are often capable of greater things than they perform - They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.

The Methodists love your big sinners, as proper subjects to work upon.