The English Writers of Tragedy are possessed with a Notion, that when they represent a virtuous or innocent Person in Distress, they ought not to leave him till they have delivered him out of his Troubles, or made him triumph over his Enemies.

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.

Nothing that isn't a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconsistency.

The first race of mankind used to dispute, as our ordinary people do now-a-days, in a kind of wild logic, uncultivated by rule of art.

If our zeal were true and genuine we should be much more angry with a sinner than a heretic.

Dependence is a perpetual call upon humanity, and a greater incitement to tenderness and pity than any other motive whatever.