Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.

An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity.

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!

Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.

The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves.

Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.

There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.

The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.

Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them.

The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.

The post of honour is a private station.

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.

When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.

Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship.

Among all kinds of Writing, there is none in which Authors are more apt to miscarry than in Works of Humour, as there is none in which they are more ambitious to excel.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.

If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it.

Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.

Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.

The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.

Jesters do often prove prophets.

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.

Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.

That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.

The woman that deliberates is lost.

Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another.

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.