Pity is not natural to man. Children are always cruel. Savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason. We may have uneasy sensations from seeing a creature in distress, without pity; for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them.

Sleep is a state in which a great part of every life is passed. No animal has yet been discovered, whose existence is not varied with intervals of insensibility; and some late philosophers have extended the empire of sleep over the vegetable world.

Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation.

When a man feel the reprehension of a friend seconded by his own heart, he is easily heated into resentment.

Some have little power to do good, and have likewise little strength to resist evil.

Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.

The present time is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies by recollection or anticipation.