What we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read.

There is nothing so minute, or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not.

A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful.

Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.

The business of life summons us away from useless grief, and calls us to the exercise of those virtues of which we are lamenting our deprivation.