though fortune's wheel is generally on the turn, sometimes when it gets into the mud, it sticks there.

It is amazing how much a thought expands and refines by being put into speech: I should think it could hardly know itself.

What is life? A gulf of troubled waters, where the soul, like a vexed bark, is tossed upon the waves of pain and pleasure by the wavering breath of passions.

One would think that an unsuccessful volume was like a degree in the school of reviewing. One unread work makes the judge bitter enough; but a second failure, and he is quite desperate in his damnation. I do believe one half of the injustice - the severity of 'the ungentle craft' originates in its own want of success: they cannot forgive the popularity which has passed them over.

Childhood, whose very happiness is love.

ingratitude is the necessary consequence of receiving favors of which we are ashamed.

Curiosity and courtesy are very often at variance.