It is easy to talk of sitting at home contented, when others are seeing or making shows. But not to have been where it is supposed..., and seldom supposed falsely, that all would go if they could; to be able to say nothing when everyone is talking; to have no opinion when everyone is judging; to hear exclamations of rapture without power to depress; to listen to falsehoods without right to contradict, is, after all, a state of temporary inferiority, in which the mind is rather hardened by stubbornness, than supported by fortitude. If the world be worth winning let us enjoy it, if it is to be despised let us despise it by conviction. But the world is not to be despised but as it is compared with something better.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Disappointment, when it involves neither shame nor loss, is as good as success; for it supplies as many images to the mind, and as... many topics to the tongue.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Attention and respect give pleasure, however late, or however useless. But they are not useless, when they are late, it is reasona...ble to rejoice, as the day declines, to find that it has been spent with the approbation of mankind.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head that I do not love you; you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my lo...ve and my esteem; I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »