Sam Softly was bred a sugar-baker; but succeeding to a considerable estate on the death of his elder brother, he retired early from business.

Whatever is useful or honourable will be desired by many who never can obtain it; and that which cannot be obtained when it is desired, artifice or folly will be diligent to counterfeit.

It is common to overlook what is near, by keeping the eye fixed upon something remote.

The use of English oratory is only at the bar, in the parliament, and in the church.

Almost all the moral good, which is left among us, is the apparent effect of physical evil.

This fatal question has disturbed the quiet of many other minds. He that inquires can very seldom receive from his own heart such an account as will give him satisfaction.

Of what we know not, we can only judge by what we know.

I am a young lady newly married. Our fortune is large, our minds are vacant, our dispositions gay, our acquaintances numerous, and our relations splendid.

But however the writers of the day may despair of future fame, they ought at least to forbear any present mischief.

Biography is, of the various kinds of narrative writing, that which is most eagerly read, and most easily applied to the purposes of life.