Preaching has become a by-word for a long and dull conversation of any kind; and whoever wishes to imply, in any piece of writing, the absence of everything agreeable and inviting, calls it a sermon.

I look upon Switzerland as an inferior sort of Scotland.

Economy, in the estimation of common minds, often means the absence of all taste and comfort.

A sparrow fluttering about the church is an antagonist which the most profound theologian in Europe is wholly unable to overcome.

Take a short view of human life not farther than dinner or tea.

Many in this world run after felicity like an absent-minded man hunting for his hat while all the time it is on his head.

There is not the least use preaching to anyone unless you chance to catch them ill.

Soup and fish explain half the emotions of life.

Human beings cling to their delicious tyrannies and to their exquisite nonsense, till death stares them in the face.

That sign of old age, extolling the past at the expense of the present.