As the last Idler is published…I hope that my readers are already disposed to view every incident with seriousness, and improve it by meditation;

This is the reason why almost every one wishes to quit his employment; he does not like another state, but is disgusted with his own.

Terrestrial happiness is of short continuance. The brightness of the flame is wasting its fuel; the fragrant flower is passing away in its own odors.

I lived in a state of celibacy beyond the usual time.

Surely, said he to himself, this palace is the seat of happiness, where pleasure succeeds to pleasure, and discontent and sorrow can have no admission.

But, though disappointed in my expectations, I do not despair.

It may, I think, be justly observed, that few books disappoint their readers more than the narrations of travellers.

Hacho, a king of Lapland, was in his youth the most renowned of the Northern warriors.

All this is very provoking; and yet all this might be borne, if the boy could support his pretensions.

That those who profess to advance learning sometimes obstruct it, cannot be denied; the continual multiplication of books disappoints inquiry.