it is a curious fact, but one which all experience owns, that people do not desire so much to appear better, as to appear different from what they really are.

Suicide and antipathy to fires in a bedroom seem to be among the national characteristics. Perhaps the same moral cause may originate both.

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.

The past is perpetual youth to the heart.

Praise is sometimes a good thing for the diffident and the despondent. It teaches them properly to rely on the kindness of others.

sight-seeing gratifies us in different ways. First, there is the pleasure of novelty; secondly, either that of admiration or fault-finding - the latter a very animated enjoyment.

... true love is like religion, it hath its silence and its sanctity.