Sleep is a state in which a great part of every life is passed. No animal has yet been discovered, whose existence is not varied with intervals of insensibility; and some late philosophers have extended the empire of sleep over the vegetable world.

There must always be some advantage on one side or the other, and it is better that advantage should be had by talents than by chance.

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.

Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.

If we estimate dignity by immediate usefulness, agriculture is undoubtedly the first and noblest science.

That what cannot be repaired is not to be regretted.

I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.