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.

I have sometimes seen women, who would have been sensible enough, if they would have been content not to be called women of sense--but by aiming at what they had not, they only proved absurd--for sense cannot be counterfeited.

Serendipitous discoveries are made by chance, found without looking for them but possible only through a sharp vision and sagacity, ready to see the unexpected and never indulgent with the apparently unexplainable.

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

This world is a comedy, not Life.

Without grace no book can live, and with it the poorest may have its life prolonged.

Nine-tenths of the people were created so you would want to be with the other tenth.