There is no idleness, by which we are so easily seduced, as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business, and by making the loiterer imagine that he has something to do which must not be neglected, keeps him in perpetual agitation, and hurries him rapidly from place to place.

Dogs have not the power of comparing. A dog will take a small piece of meat as readily as a large, when both are before him.

The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

There are, indeed, few kinds of composition from which an author, however learned or ingenious, can hope a long continuance of fame.

As any custom is disused, the words that expressed it must perish with it; as any opinion grows popular, it will innovate speech in the same proportion as it alters practice.

Few men survey themselves with so much severity as not to admit prejudices in their own favor.

Such is the pleasure of projecting that many content themselves with a succession of visionary schemes, and wear out their allotted time in the calm amusement of contriving what they never attempt or hope to execute.