Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.

The dependant who cultivates delicacy in himself very little consults his own tranquillity.

We seldom learn the true want of what we have till it is discovered that we can have no more.

There are in every age new errors to be rectified and new prejudices to be opposed.

The care of the critic should be to distinguish error from inability, faults of inexperience from defects of nature.

It is almost always the unhappiness of a victorious disputant to destroy his own authority by claiming too many consequences, or diffusing his proposition to an indefensible extent.

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.