All our pursuits, from childhood to manhood, are only trifles of different sorts and sizes, proportioned to our years and views.

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?

What the unpenetrating world call Humanity, is often no more than a weak mind pitying itself.

Superstitious notions propagated in infancy are hardly ever totally eradicate, not even in minds grown strong enough to despise the like credulous folly in others.

The person who will bear much shall have much to bear, all the world through.

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

Who would not rather be the sufferer than the defrauder?