Why will any man be so impertinently officious as to tell me all prospect of a future state is only fancy and delusion? Is there any merit in being the messenger of ill news. If it is a dream, let me enjoy it, since it makes me both the happier and better man.

Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity.

A reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure until he knows whether the writer of it be a black man or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor.

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

Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts; old age is slow in both.

Our delight in any particular study, art, or science rises and improves in proportion to the application which we bestow upon it. Thus, what was at first an exercise becomes at length an entertainment.

Love, anger, pride and avarice all visibly move in those little orbs.