General Notions Are Generally Wrong.

Making Verses Is Almost As Common As Taking Snuff, And God Can Tell What Miserable Stuff People Carry About In Their Pockets, And Offer To All Their Acquaintances, And You Know One Cannot Refuse Reading And Taking A Pinch.

I Wish You Would Moderate That Fondness You Have For Your Children. I Do Not Mean You Should Abate Any Part Of Your Care, Or Not Do Your Duty To Them In Its Utmost Extent, But I Would Have You Early Prepare Yourself For Disappointments, Which Are Heavy In Proportion To Their Being Surprising.

People Are Never So Near Playing The Fool As When They Think Themselves Wise.

I Have All My Life Been On My Guard Against The Information Conveyed By The Sense Of Hearing -- It Being One Of My Earliest Observations, The Universal Inclination Of Humankind Is To Be Led By The Ears, And I Am Sometimes Apt To Imagine That They Are Given To Men As They Are To Pitchers, Purposely That They May Be Carried About By Them.

Writers Of Novels And Romance In General Bring A Double Loss To Their Readers; Robbing Them Of Their Time And Money; Representing Men, Manners, And Things, That Never Have Been, Or Are Likely To Be.