When a man is made up wholly of the dove, without the least grain of the serpent in his composition, he becomes ridiculous in many circumstances of life, and very often discredits his best actions.
It must be so, Plato, thou reason’st well!
The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas.
Though a man cannot abstain from being weak, he may from being vicious.
The consciousness of being loved softens the keenest pang even at the moment of parting; yea, even the eternal farewell is robbed of half of its bitterness when uttered in accents that breathe love to the last sigh.
Oh! think what anxious moments pass between The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods, Oh! ’tis a dreadful interval of time, Filled up with horror all, and big with death!
Method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood.
When I read the rules of criticism, I immediately inquire after the works of the author who has written them, and by that means discover what it is he likes in a composition.
Tis not my talent to conceal my thoughts, Or carry smiles and sunshine in my face, When discontent sits heavy at my heart.
My death and life, My bane and antidote, are both before me.
Let echo, too, perform her part, Prolonging every note with art; And in a low expiring strain, Play all the comfort o’er again.
There is no talent so pernicious as eloquence to those who have it under command.
Our sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses.
The circumstance which gives authors an advantage above all these great masters, is this, that they can multiply their originals; or rather, can make copies of their works, to what number they please, which shall be as valuable as the originals themselves.
I am wonderfully pleased when I meet with any passage in an old Greek or Latin author, that is not blown upon, and which I have never met with in any quotation.
Is it not wonderful, that the love of the parent should be so violent while it lasts and that it should last no longer than is necessary for the preservation of the young?
There is no society or conversation to be kept up in the world without good-nature, or something which must bear its appearance and supply its place. For this reason mankind have been forced to invent a kind of artificial humanity, which is what we express by the word Good-Breeding.
When a man becomes familiar with his goddess, she quickly sinks into a woman.
The talent of turning men into ridicule, and exposing to laughter those one converses with, is the qualification of little ungenerous tempers.
There is not in earth a spectacle more worthy than a great man superior to his sufferings.