Advice, as it always gives a temporary appearance of superiority, can never be very grateful, even when it is most necessary or most judicious; but, for the same reason, every one is eager to instruct his neighbors.

Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.

Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most.

You think I love flattery (says Dr. Johnson), and so I do; but a little too much always disgusts me: that fellow Richardson, on the contrary, could not be contented to sail quietly down the stream of reputation, without longing to taste the froth from every stroke of the oar.

The parallel circumstances and kindred images to which we readily conform our minds are, above all other writings, to be found in the lives of particular persons, and therefore no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography.

All unnecessary vows are folly, because they suppose a prescience of the future, which has not been given us.

The business of a poet is to examine not the individual but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances.