We have now learned that rashness and imprudence will not be deterred from taking credit; let us try whether fraud and avarice may be more easily restrained from giving it.

Lawful and settled authority is very seldom resisted when it is well employed.

Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.

Irresolution and mutability are often the faults of men whose views are wide, and whose imagination is vigorous and excursive.

One cause, which is not always observed, of the insufficiency of riches, is that they very seldom make their owner rich.

Words too familiar, or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet. From those sounds which we hear on small or on coarse occasions, we do not easily receive strong impressions, or delightful images; and words to which we are nearly strangers, whenever they occur, draw that attention on themselves which they should transmit to other things.

It requires but little acquaintance with the heart to know that woman's first wish is to be handsome; and that, consequently, the readiest method of obtaining her kindness is to praise her beauty.