The animadversions of critics are commonly such as may easily provoke the sedatest writer to some quickness of resentment and asperity of reply.

There is no book so poor that it would not be a prodigy if wholly made by a single man.

Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, and don't think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire.

While an author is yet living, we estimate his powers by his worst performance; and when he is dead, we rate him by his best.

There is in this world no real delight (excepting those of sensuality), but exchange of ideas in conversation.

The most fatal disease of friendship is gradual decay, or dislike hourly increased by causes too slender for complaint, and too numerous for removal.

It is not difficult to conceive, however, that for many reasons a man writes much better than he lives. For without entering into refined speculations, it may be shown much easier to design than to perform. A man proposes his schemes of life in a state of abstraction and disengagement, exempt from the enticements of hope, the solicitations of affection, the importunities of appetite, or the depressions of fear.