As we are poetical in our natures, so we delight in fable.

People do not seem to talk for the sake of expressing their opinions, but to maintain an opinion for the sake of talking.

The mind of man is like a clock that is always running down, and requires to be constantly wound up.

Honesty is one part of eloquence. We persuade others by being in earnest ourselves.

The severest critics are always those who have either never attempted, or who have failed in original composition.

A certain excess of animal spirits with thoughtless good-humor will often make more enemies than the most deliberate spite and ill-nature, which is on its guard, and strikes with caution and safety.

We judge of others for the most part by their good opinion of themselves; yet nothing gives such offense or creates so many enemies, as that extreme self-complacency or superciliousness of manner, which appears to set the opinion of every one else at defiance.