There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.

In this work are exhibited, in a very high degree, the two most engaging powers of an author. New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new.

Much is due to those who first broke the way to knowledge, and left only to their successors the task of smoothing it.

I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney.

Many leave the labours of half their life to their executors and to chance, because they will not send them abroad unfinished, and are unable to finish them, having prescribed to themselves such a degree of exactness as human diligence can scarcely ontain.

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.