In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.

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.

I do not wonder that, where the monastick life is permitted, every order finds votaries, and every monastery inhabitants. Men will submit to any rule, by which they may be exempted from the tyranny of caprice and of chance. They are glad to supply by external authority their own want of constancy and resolution, and court the government of others, when long experience has convinced them of their own inability to govern themselves.

Moderation is commonly firm, and firmness is commonly successful.

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

Nay, Sir, those who write in them, write well, in order to be paid well.

As all error is meanness, it is incumbent on every man who consults his own dignity, to retract it as soon as he discovers it.