When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.

I know not, Madam, that you have a right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much.

The luster of diamonds is invigorated by the interposition of darker bodies; the lights of a picture are created by the shades; the highest pleasure which nature has indulged to sensitive perception is that of rest after fatigue.

Little would be wanting to the happiness of life, if every man could conform to the right as soon as he was shown it.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.

The natural progress of the works of men is from rudeness to convenience, from convenience to elegance, and from elegance to nicety.