That strange premature genius Chatterton has couched in one line the quintessence of what Voltaire has said in many pages: "Reason, a thorn in Revelation's side.

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

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.

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

Shakespeare, with an improved education and in a more enlightened age, might easily have attained the purity and correction of Racine; but nothing leads one to suppose that Racine in a barbarous age would have attained the grandeur, force and nature of Shakespeare.

Our bells are worn threadbare with ringing for victories

How posterity will laugh at us, one way or other! If half a dozen break their necks, and balloonism is exploded, we shall be called fools for having imagined it could be brought to use: if it should be turned to account, we shall be ridiculed for having doubted.