Happy! Who is happy? Was there not a serpent in Paradise itself? And if Eve had been perfectly happy beforehand, would she have listened to the tempter?

Perhaps all early love affairs ought to be strangled or drowned, like so many blind kittens.

Next to eating good dinners, a healthy man with a benevolent turn of mind, must like, I think, to read about them.

We are most of us very lonely in this world; you who have any who love you, cling to them and thank God.

He was always thinking of his brother's soul, or of the souls of those who differed with him in opinion: it is a sort of comfort which many of the serious give themselves.

Tis hard with respect to Beauty, that its possessor should not have a life enjoyment of it, but be compelled to resign it after, at the most, some forty years lease

If a secret history of books could be written, and the author's private thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story, how many insipid volumes would become interesting, and dull tales excite the reader!