There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.

Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. It becomes cheap as it becomes vulgar, and will no longer raise expectation or animate enterprise.

Truth, like beauty, varies its fashions, and is best recommended by different dresses to different minds; and he that recalls the attention of mankind to any part of learning which time has left behind it, may be truly said to advance the literatures of his own age. As the manners of nations vary, new topicks of persuasion become necessary, and new combinations of imagery are produced; and he that can accommodate himself to the reigning taste, may always have readers who perhaps would not have looked upon better performances.

The necessities of our condition require a thousand offices of tenderness, which mere regard for the species will never dictate.

Resentment gratifies him who intended an injury, and pains him unjustly who did not intend it.

Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.