I endeavor not to conceal that I believe there is a great mixture of desire in the passion which is called love--or rather, without any far-fetched strain on words, it may be called the companion of love.

Agreeable then to my present inclination, I formed the object of my own worship, which was no other than my own understanding.

If modesty and candor are necessary to an author in his judgment of his own works, no less are they in his reader.

Men look on knowledge which they learn--or might learn--from others as they do on the most beautiful structures which are not their own: in outward objects, they would rather behold their own hogsty than their neighbor's palace; and in mental ones, would prefer one grain of knowledge gained by their own observation to all the wisdom of a thousand Solomons.

But in all things whether we shall make only a due use of the liberties we have asked, is left entirely to the judicious reader to decide.

I fancied I had some constancy of mind because I could bear my own sufferings, but found through the sufferings of others I could be weakened like a child.

Their virtues lived in their children. The family changed its persons but not its manners, and they continued a blessing to the world from generation to generation.