A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.

Every period of life is obliged to borrow its happiness from time to come.

A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.

None are happy but by anticipation of change.

Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in the arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.

There is no being so poor and so contemptible, who does not think there is somebody still poorer, and still more contemptible.

To expect that the intricacies of science will be pierced by a careless glance, or the eminences of fame ascended without labour, is to expect a peculiar privilege, a power denied to the rest of mankind; but to suppose that the maze is inscrutable to diligence, or the heights inaccessible to perseverance, is to submit tamely to the tyranny of fancy, and enchain the mind in voluntary shackles.