The most exquisite words and finest strokes of an author are those which very often appear the most doubtful and exceptionable to a man who wants a relish for polite learning; and they are those which a sour undistinguishing critic generally attacks with the greatest violence.

Devotion, when it does not lie under the check of reason, is apt to degenerate into enthusiasm.

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

Content thyself to be obscurely good.

Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.

In the founders of great families, titles or attributes of honor are generally correspondent with the virtues of the person to whom they are applied; but in their descendants they are too often the marks rather of grandeur than of merit. The stamp and denomination still continue, but the intrinsic value is frequently lost.

Heaven is not to be looked upon only as the reward, but the natural effect, of a religious life.