It is impossible for authors to discover beauties in one another's works; they have eyes only for spots and blemishes.

A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.

If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it.

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

For my own part, I am apt to join in the opinion with those who believe that all the regions of Nature swarm with spirits, and that we have multitudes of spectators on all our actions when we think ourselves most alone.

Were a man's sorrows and disquietudes summed up at the end of his life, it would generally be found that he had suffered more from the apprehension of such evils as never happened to him than from those evils which had really befallen him.

The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.