Poetry Is A Kind Of Ingenious Nonsense

As A Stick, When Once It Is Dry And Stiff You May Break It, But You Can Never Bend It Into A Straighter Posture; So Doth The Man Become Incorrigible Who Is Settled And Stiffened Into Vice.

Nothing Hath Wrought More Prejudice To Religion, Or Brought More Disparagement Upon Truth, Than Boisterous And Unseasonable Zeal.

No Adversity Is In Kind Or Degree Peculiar To Us; But If We Survey The Conditions Of Other Men (of Our Brethren Everywhere, Of Our Neighbours All About Us), And Compare Our Case With Theirs, We Shall Find That We Have Many Consorts And Associates In Adversity, Most As Ill, Many Far Worse Bestead Than Ourselves; Whence It Must Be A Great Fondness And Perverseness To Be Displeased That We Are Not Exempted From, But Exposed To Bear A Share In The Common Troubles And Burdens Of Mankind.

Upright Simplicity Is The Deepest Wisdom, And Perverse Craft The Merest Shallowness.

Nothing Of Worth Or Weight Can Be Achieved With Half A Mind, With A Faint Heart, And With A Lame Endeavor.