There is no kind of idleness by which we are so easily seduced as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business.

Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas.

Always, Sir, set a high value on spontaneous kindness.

Few of those who fill the world with books, have any pretensions to the hope either of pleasing or instructing. They have often no other task than to lay two books before them, out of which they compile a third, without any new material of their own, and with very little application of judgment to those which former authors have supplied.

The natural progress of the works of men is from rudeness to convenience, from convenience to elegance, and from elegance to nicety.

He who writes much will not easily escape a manner, such a recurrence of particular modes as may be easily noted.

Such is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden exchange meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty.