In my Lucia's absence Life hangs upon me, and becomes a burden; I am ten times undone, while hope, and fear, And grief, and rage and love rise up at once, And with variety of pain distract me.

The man who lives by hope, will die by hunger.

I... recommend to every one of my Readers, the keeping a Journal of their Lives for one Week, and setting down punctually their whole Series of Employments during that Space of Time. This kind of Self-Examination would give them a true State of themselves, and incline them to consider seriously what they are about. One Day would rectifie the Omissions of another, and make a Man weigh all those indifferent Actions, which, though they are easily forgotten, must certainly be accounted for.

But in all despotic governments, though a particular prince may favour arts and letter, there is a natural degeneracy of mankind.

It is pleasant to see a notorious profligate seized with a concern for religion, and converting his spleen into zeal.

My heart leaps at the trumpet's voice.

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.