A vow is a snare for sin

I look upon this as I did upon the Dictionary: it is all work, and my inducement to it is not love or desire of fame, but the want of money, which is the only motive to writing that I know of.

Let us be quick to repent of injuries while repentance may not be a barren anguish.

No mind is much employed upon the present; recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.

The essence of poetry is invention; such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights.

I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch and tumbling into it

Men who stand in the highest ranks of society seldom hear of their faults; if by any accident an opprobrious clamour reaches their ears, flattery is always at hand to pour in her opiates, to quiet conviction and obtund remorse.