"Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud."

"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."

"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."

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

"There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress."

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

"The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life... Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality."

"One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter."

"The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them."

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

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

"There is nothing more requisite in business than despatch."

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

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

"Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity."

"A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes."

"The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune."

"Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness."

"Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures."

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

"To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction."

"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable."

"Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble."

"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."

"No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority."

"I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: "What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.""

"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."