Sight is by much the noblest of the senses. We receive our notices from the other four, through the organs of sensation only. We hear, we feel, we smell, we taste, by touch. But sight rises infinitely higher. It is refined above matter, and equals the faculty of spirit.

Titles of honour are like the impressions on coin; — which add no value to gold and silver, but only render brass current.

To write a book is for all the world like humming a song.

It is sweet to feel by what fine spun threads our affections are drawn together.

I am persuaded ... that both man and woman bear pain or sorrow, (and, for aught I know, pleasure too) best in a horizontal position.

The more tickets you have in a lottery, the worse your chance. And it is the same of virtues, in the lottery of life.

Digressions incontestably are the sunshine; they are the life, the soul of reading.