Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated: by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed.

Nature has laid out all her art in beautifying the face; she has touched it with vermilion, planted in it a double row of ivory, made it the seat of smiles and blushes, lighted it up and enlivened it with the brightness of the eyes, hung it on each side with curious organs of sense, given it airs and graces that cannot be described, and surrounded it with such a flowing shade of hair as sets all its beauties in the most agreeable light.

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

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.

Gold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding; it dissipates every doubt and scruple in an instant.

Men naturally warm and heady are transported with the greatest flush of good-nature.

Authors have established it as a kind of rule, that a man ought to be dull sometimes; as the most severe reader makes allowances for many rests and nodding-places in a voluminous writer.