1. “A large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life, by him who interests his heart in everything.”
2. “But desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.”
3. ”Courtship consists in a number of quiet attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so vague as not to be understood.”
4. "Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine; they are the life, the soul of reading! Take them out of this book, for instance, --you might as well take the book along with them; --one cold external winter would reign in every page of it; restore them to the writer; --he steps forth like a bridegroom, --bids All-hail; brings in variety, and forbids the appetite to fail."
5. “Great wits jump.”
6. “Madness is consistent, which is more than can be said of poor reason. Whatever may be the ruling passion at the time continues so throughout the whole delirium, though it should last for life. Our passions and principles are steady in frenzy, but begin to shift and waver as we return to reason.”
7. ”Nothing is so perfectly amusing as a total change of ideas.”
8. "One may as well be asleep as to read for anything but to improve his mind and morals, and regulate his conduct."
9. “Pain and pleasure, like light and darkness, succeed each other.”
10. "Positiveness is an absurd foible. If you are in the right, it lessens your triumph; if in the wrong, it adds shame to your defeat."
11. ”The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.”
12. "We lose the right of complaining sometimes, by denying something, but this often triples its force."
