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.

Solitude is the surest nurse of all prurient passions, and a girl in the hurry of preparation, or tumult of gaiety, has neither inclination nor leisure to let tender expressions soften or sink into her heart. The ball, the show, are not the dangerous places: no, 'tis the private friend, the kind consoler, the companion of the easy vacant hour, whose compliance with her opinions can flatter her vanity, and whose conversation can sooth, without ever stretching her mind, that is the lover to be feared: he who buzzes in her ear at court, or at the opera, must be contented to buzz in vain.

What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you understand? Then I ask pardon of the rest of the company.

Almost all the moral good which is left among us is the apparent effect of physical evil.

Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach.

Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do.

The process is the reality.