To neglect at any time preparation for death is to sleep on our post at a siege; to omit it in old age is to sleep at an attack.

Surely, it is much easier to respect a man who has always had respect, than to respect a man who we know was last year no better than ourselves, and will be no better next year.

I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically, except in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and illustration, and all those arts by which a big book is made.

..to write and to live are very different. Many who praise virtue, do no more than praise it.

There are occasions on which all apology is rudeness.

To read, write, and converse in due proportions, is, therefore, the business of a man of letters.

The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it.