It is advantageous to an author that his book should be attacked as well as praised. Fame is a shuttlecock. If it be struck at only one end of the room, it will soon fall to the ground. To keep it up, it must be struck at both ends.

Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived US.

Our desires always increase with our possessions. The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.

While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates.

The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.

It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them.

I have found men more kind than I expected, and less just.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.