Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the least manageable and the most likely to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones.

The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.

There is nothing magnanimous in bearing misfortunes with fortitude, when the whole world is looking on.... He who, without friends to encourage or even without hope to alleviate his misfortunes, can behave with tranquility and indifference, is truly great.

The mind is ever ingenious in making its own distress.

The malicious sneer is improperly called laughter.

Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter.

Taste is the power of relishing or rejecting whatever is offered for the entertainment of the imagination.