The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.

In civilized society external advantages make us more respected. A man with a good coat upon his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one. You may analyze this and say, What is there in it? But that will avail you nothing, for it is a part of a general system.

No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.

Few faults of style, whether real or imaginary, excite the malignity of a more numerous class of readers, than the use of hard words.

It is justly considered as the greatest excellency of art to imitate nature; but it is necessary to distinguish those parts of nature which are most proper for imitation: greater care is still required in representing life, which is so often discoloured by passion or deformed by wickedness. If the world be promiscuously described, I cannot see of what use it can be to read the account; or why it may not be as safe to turn the eye immediately upon mankind, as upon a mirror which shows all that presents itself without discrimination.

I would consent to have a limb amputated to recover my spirits

Nothing is more common than mutual dislike, where mutual approbation is particularly expected.