Sir, what is poetry? Why, Sir, it is much easier to say what it is not. We all know what light is; but it is not easy to tell what it is.

Friendship is not always the sequel of obligation.

The present is never a happy state to any human being.

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

While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.

Grief is a species of idleness.

There is nothing against which an old man should be so much upon his guard as putting himself to nurse.