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

A good disposition is more valuable than gold, for the latter is the gift of fortune, but the former is the dower of nature.

There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country.

Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, the post of honoris a private station.

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

I never knew a critic who made it his business to lash the faults of other writers that was not guilty of greater himself--as the hangman is generally a worse malefactor than the criminal that suffers by his hand.

Thy steady temper, Portius, Can look on guilt, rebellion, fraud, and Cæsar, In the calm lights of mild philosophy.