A state of temperance, sobriety and justice without devotion is a cold, lifeless, insipid condition of virtue, and is rather to be styled philosophy than religion.

The lives of great men cannot be writ with any tolerable degree of elegance or exactness within a short time after their decease.

I shall endeavour to enliven Morality with Wit, and to temper Wit with Morality, that my Readers may, if possible, both Ways findtheir Account in the Speculation of the Day.

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

When a man has been guilty of any vice or folly, the best atonement he can make for it is to warn others not to fall into the like.

When all thy mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view I'm lost, in wonder, love and praise.

There is no defence against reproach, but obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph.