“Thwackum was for doing justice, and leaving mercy to heaven.”

A newspaper consists of just the same number of words, whether there be any news in it or not.

We should not be too hasty in bestowing either our praise or censure on mankind, since we shall often find such a mixture of good and evil in the same character, that it may require a very accurate judgment and a very elaborate inquiry to determine on which side the balance turns.

A truly elegant taste is generally accompanied with excellency of heart.

It is much easier to make good men wise, than to make bad men good.

It may be laid down as a general rule, that no woman who hath any great pretensions to admiration is ever well pleased in a company where she perceives herself to fill only the second place.

Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness. It is, Sir, the great grandfather of cuckoldom.

Wicked companions invite us to hell.

To the composition of novels and romances, nothing is necessary but paper, pens, and ink, with the manual capacity of using them.

It hath been often said, that it is not death, but dying, which is terrible.

He grew weary of this condescension, and began to treat the opinions of his wife with that haughtiuess and insolence, which none but those who deserve some contempt themselves can bestow, and those only who deserve no contempt can bear.

Domestic happiness is the end of almost all our pursuits, and the common reward of all our pains. When men find themselves forever barred from this delightful fruition, they are lost to all industry, and grow careless of all their worldly affairs. Thus they become bad subjects, bad relations, bad friends, and bad men.

Money is the fruit of evil, as often as the root of it.

We endeavor to conceal our vices under the disguise of the opposite virtues.

O innocence, how glorious and happy a portion art thou to the breast that possesses thee! thou fearest neither the eyes nor the tongues of men. Truth, the most powerful of all things, is thy strongest friend; and the brighter the light is in which thou art displayed, the more it discovers thy transcendent beauties.

Nothing more aggravates ill success than the near approach of good.

Some virtuous women are too liberal in their insults to a frail sister; but virtue can support itself without borrowing any assistance from the vices of other women.

I also found that for myself, since I’ve had no religious education, it was so interesting to see the different versions of heaven and what life on earth means.

And now I am ready to keep running When the sun rises beyond the borderlands of death. I already see mountain ridges in the heavenly forest Where, beyond every essence, a new essence awaits.

Heaven and earth fight in vain against a dunce!

We touch heaven when we lay our hand on a human body!

The dignity of man into your hands is given; Oh, keep it well, with you it sinks or lifts itself to heaven.

How evil life must be if it were indeed necessary that such imploring cries, such cries of physical and moral wretchedness, should ever and ever ascend to heaven!

I am my own heaven and hell!

Have Faith. Where’er thy bark is driven, – The calm’s disport, the tempest’s mirth, – Know this: God rules the hosts of heaven, The habitants of earth.