Readings is to the mind what exercice is to the body.

Violins are the lively, forward, importunate wits, that distinguish themselves by the flourishes of imagination, sharpness of repartee, glances of satire, and bear away the upper part in every consort.

Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools.

Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip.

Pride destroys all symmetry and grace, and affectation is a more terrible enemy to fine faces than the small-pox.

Of all the affections which attend human life, the love of glory is the most ardent.

It is a wonderful thing that so many, and they not reckoned absurd, shall entertain those with whom they converse by giving them the history of their pains and aches and imagine such narrations their quota of conversation.