Discord generally operates in little things; it is inflamed ... by contrariety of taste oftener than principles.

He that floats lazily down the stream, in pursuit of something borne along by the same current, will find himself indeed moved forward; but unless he lays his hand to the oar, and increases his speed by his own labour, must be always at the same distance from that which he is following.

At length weariness succeeds to labor, and the mind lies at ease in the contemplation of her own attainments without any desire of new conquests or excursions. This is the age of recollection and narrative; the opinions are settled, and the avenues of apprehension shut against any new intelligence; the days that are to follow must pass in the inculcation of precepts already collected, and assertion of tenets already received; nothing is henceforward so odious as opposition, so insolent as doubt, or so dangerous as novelty.

Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea?

Cautious age suspects the flattering form, and only credits what experience tells.

A writer who obtains his full purpose loses himself in his own lustre.

Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.