Fables take off from the severity of instruction, and enforce it at the same time that they conceal it.

One would fancy that the zealots in atheism would be exempt from the single fault which seems to grow out of the imprudent fervor of religion. But so it is, that irreligion is propagated with as much fierceness and contention, wrath and indignation, as if the safety of mankind depended upon it.

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

All of heaven we have below.

Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacence, if they discover none of the like in themselves.

Waning moons their settled periods keep, to swell the billows and ferment the deep.

I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the middle of Winter.