No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he had

The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.

John Wesley's conversation is good, but he is never at leisure. He is always obliged to go at a certain hour. This is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have his talk out as I do.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore equally destructive to happiness with the diminution of possession, and he that teaches another to long for what he never shall obtain is no less an enemy to his quiet than if he had robbed him of part of his patrimony

Bashfulness may sometimes exclude pleasure, but seldom opens any avenue to sorrow or remorse.

Vulgar and inactive minds confound familiarity with knowledge, and conceive themselves informed of the whole nature of things, when they are shown their form or told their use.