Solitude is the surest nurse of all prurient passions, and a girl in the hurry of preparation, or tumult of gaiety, has neither inclination nor leisure to let tender expressions soften or sink into her heart. The ball, the show, are not the dangerous places: no, 'tis the private friend, the kind consoler, the companion of the easy vacant hour, whose compliance with her opinions can flatter her vanity, and whose conversation can sooth, without ever stretching her mind, that is the lover to be feared: he who buzzes in her ear at court, or at the opera, must be contented to buzz in vain.
Samuel JohnsonWine gives great pleasure; and every pleasure is of itself a good. It is a good, unless counterbalanced by evil.
Samuel JohnsonThe charm of London is that you are never glad or sorry for ten minutes together; in the country you are one or the other for weeks.
Samuel Johnson