A small country town is not the place in which one would choose to quarrel with a wife; every human being in such places is a spy.

The majority of a society is the true definition of the public.

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.

God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I?

Nothing is difficult, when gain and honour unite their influence.

They that have grown old in a single state are generally found to be morose, fretful and captious; tenacious of their own practices and maxims; soon offended by contradiction or negligence; and impatient of any association but with those that will watch their nod, and submit themselves to unlimited authority.

Words too familiar, or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet.