The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

The blaze of reputation cannot be blown out, but it often dies in the socket; a very few names may be considered as perpetual lamps that shine unconsumed.

There are, indeed, few kinds of composition from which an author, however learned or ingenious, can hope a long continuance of fame.

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

A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write. The regard of the public is not to be kept but by tribute, and the remembrance of past service will quickly languish unless successive performances frequently revive it. Yet in every new attempt there is new hazard, and there are few who do not, at some unlucky time, injure their own characters by attempting to enlarge them.

To love their country has been considered as virtue in men, whose love could not be otherwise than blind, because their preference was made without, a comparison; but it has never been my fortune to find, either in ancient or modern writers, any honourable mention of those, who have, with equal blindness, hated their country.

You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense of their labor, than when you give money merely in charity.