A ship is worse than a gaol. There is, in a gaol, better air, better company, better conveniency of every kind; and a ship has the additional disadvantage of of being in danger.

There is scarcely any writer who has not celebrated the happiness of rural privacy, and delighted himself and his reader with the melody of birds, the whisper of groves, and the murmur of rivulets.

If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

It is, however, not necessary, that a man should forbear to write, till he has discovered some truth unknown before; he may be sufficiently useful, by only diversifying the surface of knowledge, and luring the mind by a new appearance to a second view of those beauties which it had passed over inattentively before.

Ignorance cannot always be inferred from inaccuracy; knowledge is not always present.

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

Sir, there is no end of negative criticism.