If atoms do, by chance, happen to combine themselves into so many shapes, why have they never combined together to form a house or a slipper? By the same token, why do we not believe that if innumerable letters of the Greek alphabet were poured all over the market-place they would eventually happen to form the text of the Iliad?

When we have got it, we want something else.

Long life, and short, are by death made all one; for there is no long, nor short, to things that are no more.

To divert myself from a troublesome fancy, it is but to run to my books; they presently fix me to them, and drive the other out of my thoughts, and do not mutiny to see that I have only recourse to them for want of other more, real, natural, and lively conveniences; they always receive me with the same kindness.

Natural inclinations are assisted and reinforced by education, but they are hardly ever altered or overcome.

Praise is always pleasing, let it come from whom, or upon what account it will.

I want death to find me planting my cabbages, but careless of death, and still more of my unfinished garden.