“Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.”

Fear of the future is worse than one’s present fortune.

The obscurity of a writer is generally in proportion to his incapacity.

That which prematurely arrives at perfection soon perishes.

Conscience is a thousand witnesses.

God, that all-powerful Creator of nature and architect of the world, has impressed man with no character so proper to distinguish him from other animals, as by the faculty of speech.

Men of quality are in the wrong to undervalue, as they often do, the practise of a fair and quick hand in writing; for it is no immaterial accomplishment.

One thing, however, I must premise, that without the assistance of natural capacity, rules and precepts are of no efficacy.

A liar should have a good memory.

She abounds with lucious faults.

The perfection of art is to conceal art.

Too exact, and studious of similitude rather than of beauty.

Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.

Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.

For all the best teachers pride themselves on having a large number of pupils and think themselves worthy of a bigger audience.

Ambition is a vice, but it may be the father of virtue.

The mind is exercised by the variety and multiplicity of the subject matter, while the character is moulded by the contemplation of virtue and vice.

Union of hearts, not hands, does a marriage make, and sympathy of mind keeps love awake.

Surprise keeps the reader awake. The only alternative is to continue saying what the reader is expecting. What fun is that?

All the senses awaken and fall into harmony in poetic reverie. Poetic reverie listens to this polyphony of the senses, and the poetic consciousness must record it.

I remember that I’m invisible and walk softly so as not awake the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.

One of the coolest and wisest hours a man has, is just after he awakes in the morning.

Great doubt will eventually lead to great awakening.

The real work is in the Heart: Wake up your Heart! Because when the heart is completely awake, Then it needs no Friend.

A good husband is never the first to go to sleep at night or the last to awake in the morning.