Critics, like the rest of mankind, are very frequently misled by interest.
The care of the critic should be to distinguish error from inability, faults of inexperience from defects of nature.
It seems to be remarkable that death increases our veneration for the good, and extenuates our hatred for the bad.
Philosophy has often attempted to repress insolence by asserting that all conditions are leveled by death; a position which, however it may defect the happy, will seldom afford much comfort to the wretched.
The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die.
The uncertainty of death is, in effect, the great support of the whole system of life.
To neglect at any time preparation for death is to sleep on our post at a siege; to omit it in old age is to sleep at an attack.
When we see our enemies and friends gliding away before us, let us not forget that we are subject to the general law of mortality, and shall soon be where our doom will be fixed forever.
Economy is the parent of integrity, of liberty, and of ease, and the beauteous sister of temperance, of cheerfulness and health.
The prospect of penury in age is so gloomy and terrifying that every man who looks before him must resolve to avoid it; and it must be avoided generally by the science of sparing.
No evil is insupportable but that which is accompanied with consciousness of wrong.
Still we love The evil we do, until we suffer it.
Complaints are vain; we will try to. do better another time. To-morrow and to-morrow. A few designs and a few failures, and the time of designing is past.
He that is pushing his predecessors into the gulf of obscurity, cannot but sometimes suspect, that he must himself sink in like manner, and, as he stands upon the same precipice, be swept away with the same violence.
It is more reasonable to wish for reputation while it may be enjoyed, as Anacreon calls upon his companions to give him for present use the wine and garlands which they propose to bestow upon his tomb.
None of the projects or designs which exercise the mind of man are equally subject to obstructions and disappointments with the pursuit of fame.
The love of fame is a passion natural and universal, which no man, however high or mean, however wise or ignorant, was yet able to despise.
Foppery is never cured; it is the bad stamina of the mind, which, like those of the body, are never rectified; once a coxcomb always a coxcomb.
Friends are often chosen for similitude of manners, and therefore each palliates the other’s failings because they are his own.
As the greatest liar tells more truths than falsehoods, so may it be said of the worst man, that he does more good than evil.