To fix the thoughts by writing, and subject them to frequent examinations and reviews, is the best method of enabling the mind to detect its own sophisms, and keep it on guard against the fallacies which it practices on others

An author places himself uncalled before the tribunal of criticism and solicits fame at the hazard of disgrace.

...it will not always happen that the success of a poet is proportionate to his labor.

You never find people laboring to convince you that you may live very happily upon a plentiful income.

The fiction of happiness is propagated by every tongue and confirmed by every look till at last all profess the joy which they do not feel and consent to yield to the general delusion.

Riches, perhaps, do not so often produce crimes as incite accusers.

Unintelligible language is a lantern without a light.