The easiest thing to do, whenever you fail, is to put yourself down by blaming your lack of ability for your misfortunes.

There is a healthful hardiness about real dignity that never dreads contact and communion with others however humble.

Villainy wears many masks; none so dangerous as the mask of virtue.

Angling is an amusement peculiarly adapted to the mild and cultivated scenery of England

The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal - every other affliction to forget: but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open - this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude.

I sometimes think one of the great blessings we shall enjoy in heaven, will be to receive letters by every post and never be obliged to reply to them.

With every exertion, the best of men can do but a moderate amount of good; but it seems in the power of the most contemptible individual to do incalculable mischief.