Every man naturally persuades himself that he can keep his resolutions, nor is he convinced of his imbecility but by length of time and frequency of experiment.

Come, let me know what it is that makes a Scotch man happy!

I know not why any one but a school boy in his declamation would whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they were rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves and of one another.

A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.

There is ... scarcely any species of writing of which we can tell what is its essence, and what are its constituents; every new genius produces some innovation, which, when invented and approved, subverts the rules which the practice of foregoing authors had established.

The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

Words too familiar, or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet.