The productions of a great genius, with many lapses and inadvertences, are infinitely preferable to the works of an inferior kind of author which are scrupulously exact, and conformable to all the rules of correct writing

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The most skillful flattery is to let a person talk on, and be a listener

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The most exquisite words and finest strokes of an author are those which very often appear the most doubtful and exceptionable to a man who wants a relish for polite learning; and they are those which a sour undistinguishing critic generally attacks with the greatest violence

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The man who will live above his present circumstances is in great danger of living in a little time much beneath them, or, as the Italian proverb says: The man who lives by hope will die by despair

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The jealous man's disease is of so malignant a nature that it converts all it takes into its own nourishment

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The greatest parts, without discretion as observed by an elegant writer, may be fatal to their owner; as Polyphemus, deprived of his eyes, was only the more exposed on account of his enormous strength and stature

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That fine part of our construction, the eye, seems as much the receptacle and seat of our passions as the mind itself; and at least it is the outward portal to introduce them to the house within, or rather the common thoroughfare to let our affections pass in and out

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Supposing all the great points of atheism were formed into a kind of creed, I would fain ask whether it would not require an infinite greater measure of faith than any set of articles which they so violently oppose

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Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life

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Prejudice and self-sufficiency naturally proceed from inexperience of the world and ignorance of mankind

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