True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

For my own part, I am apt to join in the opinion with those who believe that all the regions of Nature swarm with spirits, and that we have multitudes of spectators on all our actions when we think ourselves most alone.

Our forefathers looked upon nature with more reverence and horror, before the world was enlightened by learning and philosophy, and loved to astonish themselves with the apprehensions of witchcraft, prodigies, charms, and inchantments. There was not a village in England that had not a ghost in it, the church-yards were all haunted, every large common had a circle of fairies belonging to it, and there was scarce a shepherd to be met with who had not seen a spirit.

Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.

Love is a second life; it grows into the soul, warms every vein, and beats in every pulse.

The jealous man's disease is of so malignant a nature, that it converts all it takes into its own nourishment.

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