That dangerous but too commonly received notion, that a reformed rake makes the best husband.

The Nature of Familiar Letters, written, as it were, to the Moment, while the Heart is agitated by Hopes and Fears, on Events undecided, must plead an Excuse for the Bulk of a Collection of this Kind. Mere Facts and Characters might be comprised in a much smaller Compass: But, would they be equally interesting?

...for my master, bad as I have thought him, is not half so bad as this woman.-To be sure she must be an atheist!

The World is not enough used to this way of writing, to the moment. It knows not that in the minutiae lie often the unfoldings ofthe Story, as well as of the heart; and judges of an action undecided, as if it were absolutely decided.

It is better to be thought perverse than insincere.

We have nothing to do, but to choose what is right, to be steady in the pursuit of it, and leave the issue to Providence.

A Stander-by is often a better judge of the game than those that play.