The end of writing is to instruct; the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing.

All intellectual improvement arises from leisure.

There are people whom one should like very well to drop, but would not wish to be dropped by.

It is generally agreed, that few men are made better by affluence or exaltation.

Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.

In proportion as our cares are employed upon the future, they are abstracted from the present, from the only time which we can call our own, and of which, if we neglect the apparent duties to make provision against visionary attacks, we shall certainly counteract our own purpose.

Abuse is often of service. There is nothing so dangerous to an author as silence.