He that shall peruse the political pamphlets of any past reign will wonder why they were so eagerly read, or so loudly praised.

To read, write, and converse in due proportions, is, therefore, the business of a man of letters.

When a man feel the reprehension of a friend seconded by his own heart, he is easily heated into resentment.

Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favor. She imagines herself not only certain of accomplishing every adventure, but of obtaining those rewards which the accomplishment may deserve. She is not easily persuaded to believe that the force of merit can be resisted by obstinacy and avarice, or its luster darkened by envy and malignity.

The present is never a happy state to any human being.

Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.

To tell of disappointment and misery, to thicken the darkness of futurity, and perplex the labyrinth of uncertainty, has been always a delicious employment of the poets