“It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age
“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
“Our disputants put me in mind of the scuttle fish, that when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens all the water about him, till he becomes invisible
“There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country
“Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty
“Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object
“To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement
“Words, when well chosen, have so great a force in them that a description often gives us more lively ideas than the sight of things themselves
“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
“Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed
“Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, filling it with a steady and perpetual serenity