"The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression."

"A man who writes a book, thinks himself wiser or wittier than the rest of mankind; he supposes that he can instruct or amuse them, and the publick to whom he appeals, must, after all, be the judges of his pretensions."

"Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed."

"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

"I like a good hater."

"Pride is seldom delicate: it will please itself with very mean advantages."

"I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him."

"Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy."

"I am not yet so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth and that things are the sons of heaven."

"It is the just doom of laziness and a gluttony to be inactive without ease and drowsy without tranquillity."

"Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance."

"Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified."

"That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition no vanity but a calm quiet interchange of sentiments."

"You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it; for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle."

"Hell is paved with good intentions."

"When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped."

"The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning."

"No man is much pleased with a companion who does not increase in some respect his fondness of himself."

"Had I learned to fiddle I should have done nothing else."

"A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain."

"Is there such depravity in man as that he should injure another without benefit to himself?"

"Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings."

"No member of a society has a right to teach any doctrine contrary to what society holds to be true."

"It is by studying little things that we attain the great knowledge of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible."

"To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed."

"Few things are impossible to diligence and skill."

"That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem."

"He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else."

"The drama's laws the drama's patrons give. For we that live to please must please to live."

"O how vain and vile a passion is this fear! What base uncomely things it makes men do."

"While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it."

"Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect."

"Our minds, like our bodies, are in continual flux; something is hourly lost, and something acquired."

"Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms."

"Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions."

"Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them."

"Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking."

"A man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge."

"The two offices of memory are collection and distribution."

"To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly."

"The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape."

"You hesitate to stab me with a word, and know not - silence is the sharper sword."

"He knows not his own strength who hath not met adversity."

"You can't be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute who's for you and who's against you."

"He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions."

"I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works."

"Actions are visible, though motives are secret."

"John Wesley's conversation is good but he is never at leisure. He is always obliged to go at a certain hour. This is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have his talk out as I do."

"No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures."

"The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us."