Men may be very learned, and yet very miserable; it is easy to be a deep geometrician, or a sublime astronomer, but very difficult to be a good man. I esteem, therefore, the traveller who instructs the heart, but despise him who only indulges the imagination. A man who leaves home to mend himself and others, is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is only a vagabond.

Such dainties to them, their health it might hurt;It's like sending them ruffles, when wanting a shirt.

There is no arguing with Johnson: for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.

[To Mr. Johnson] If you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales.

You may all go to pot.

One writer, for instance, excels at a plan or a title page, another works away at the body of the book, and a third is a dab at an index.

As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent.

Good people all, with one acord,Lament for Madame Blaize,Who never wanted a good word —From those who spoke her praise.

That strain once more; it bids remembrance rise.