He that is much flattered soon learns to flatter himself.

It is in refinement and elegance that the civilized man differs from the savage.

The purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy the power of pleasing must be blown aside

Every man prefers virtue, when there is not some strong incitement to transgress its precepts.

It is not the desire of new acquisitions, but the glory of conquests, that fires the soldier's breast; as indeed the town is seldom worth much, when it has suffered the devastations of a siege.

Providence has fixed the limits of human enjoyment by immovable boundaries, and has set different gratifications at such a distance from each other, that no art or power can bring them together. This great law it is the business of every rational being to understand, that life may not pass away in an attempt to make contradictions consistent, to combine opposite qualities, and to unite things which the nature of their being must always keep asunder.

It is observed of gold, by an old epigrammatist, that to have it is to be in fear, and to want it is to be in sorrow.