Readers soon tire of prefaces, and skip them, and so the labor of writing them is lost.

It is useless to check the vain dunce who has caught the mania of scribbling, whether prose or poetry, canzonets or criticisms,--let such a one go on till the disease exhausts itself. Opposition like water, thrown on burning oil, but increases the evil, because a person of weak judgment will seldom listen to reason, but become obstinate under reproof.

It is a bad business, dealing in lottery tickets ... Riches got in such a hasty manner never wear well.

There are few sensations more painful, than, in the midst of deep grief, to know that the season which we have always associated with mirth and rejoicing is at hand.

Riches are always over estimated; the enjoyment they give is more in the pursuit than the possession.

The most welcome guest in society will ever be the one to whose mind everything is a suggestion, and whose words suggest something to everybody.

A man is never more satisfied than when he is confirming a favorite theory.