Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.

...a common observation, that few are mended by imprisonment, and that he, whose crimes have made confinement necessary, seldom makes any other use of his enlargement, than to do, with greater cunning, what he did before with less.

Scarcely any degree of judgment is sufficient to restrain the imagination from magnifying that on which it is long detained

Ease, a neutral state between pain and pleasure ... if it is not rising into pleasure will be falling towards pain.

It is very common for us to desire most what we are least qualified to obtain.

Politeness is fictitious benevolence. Depend upon it, the want of it never fails to produce something disagreeable to one or other.