[W]ith an unquiet mind, neither exercise, nor diet, nor physick can be of much use.

God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I?

Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow, - attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.

Expectation improperly indulged in must end in disappointment.

Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.

It is however, reasonable, to have perfection in our eye; that we may always advance towards it, though we know it never can be reached.

The wickedness of a loose or profane author is more atrocious than that of a giddy libertine or drunken ravisher, not only because it extends its effects wider, as a pestilence that taints the air is more destructive than poison infused in a draught, but because it is committed with cool deliberation.