In my early years I read very hard. It is a sad reflection, but a true one, that I knew almost as much at eighteen as I do now.
Shakespeare never had six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven, but this does not refute my general assertion.
We are perpetually moralists, but we are geometricians only by chance. Our intercourse with intellectual nature is necessary; our speculations upon matter are voluntary, and at leisure.
To make dictionaries is dull work.
Was there ever yet anything written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and the Pilgrim’s Progress?
His most frequent ailment was the headache which he used to relieve by inhaling the steam of coffee.
The civilities of the great are never thrown away.
The expense is damnable, the position is ridiculous, and the pleasure fleeting.
Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.
It is not easy to surround life with any circumstances in which youth will not be delightful.
The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth.
Fears of the brave and follies of the wise.
I have always suspected that the reading is right, which requires many words to prove it wrong; and the emendation wrong, that cannot without so much labour appear to he right.
Merriment is always the effect of a sudden impression. The jest which is expected is already destroyed.
An exotic and irrational entertainment, which has been always combated, and always has prevailed.
The reciprocal civility of authors is one of the most risible scenes in the farce of life.
I have two very cogent reasons for not printing any list of subscribers; one, that I have lost all the names, the other, that I have spent all the money.
Let me rejoice in the light which Thou hast imparted; let me serve Thee with active zeal, humbled confidence, and wait with patient expectation for the time in which the soul which Thou receivest shall be satisfied with knowledge.
Life admits not of delays; when pleasure can be had, it is fit to catch it. Every hour takes away part of the things that please us, and perhaps part of our disposition to be pleased.
A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian, Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched, And touched nothing that he did not adorn.