No wonder, Sir, that he is vain; a man who is perpetually flattered in every mode that can be conceived. So many bellows have blown the fire, that one wonders he is not by this time become a cinder.

As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.

Every cold empirick, when his heart is expanded by a successful experiment, swells into a theorist.

He that hopes to look back hereafter with satisfaction upon past years must learn to know the present value of single minutes, and endeavour to let no particle of time fall useless to the ground.

When I first collected these authorities, I was desirous that every quotation should be useful to some other end than the illustration of a word; I therefore extracted from philosophers principles of science; from historians remarkable facts; from chymists complete processes; from divines striking exhortations; and from poets beautiful descriptions.

Life is barren enough surely with all her trappings; let us be therefore cautious of how we strip her.

Bias and impartiality is in the eye of the beholder.