No one will persist long in helping someone who will not help themselves.

There is no temper more unpropitious to interest than desultory application and unlimited inquiry, by which the desires are held in a perpetual equipoise, and the mind fluctuates between different purposes without determination.

Discord generally operates in little things; it is inflamed ... by contrariety of taste oftener than principles.

A family ... is a little kingdom, torn with factions and exposed to revolutions.

I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.

Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return.

Whoever desires, for his writings or himself, what none can reasonably contemn, the favour of mankind, must add grace to strength, and make his thoughts agreeable as well as useful. Many complain of neglect who never tried to attract regard.