The authour who imitates his predecessors only by furnishing himself with thoughts and elegances out of the same general magazine of literature, can with little more propriety be reproached as a plagiary, than the architect can be censured as a mean copier of Angelo or Wren, because he digs his marble out of the same quarry, squares his stones by the same art, and unites them in columns of the same orders.

Every state of society is as luxurious as it can be. Men always take the best they can get.

Never speak of a man in his own presence. It is always indelicate, and may be offensive .

Men seldom give pleasure when they are not pleased themselves.

Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

Actions are visible, though motives are secret.

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.