“There's naught, no doubt, so much the spirit calms as rum and true religion.”

“Tis strange,-but true; for truth is always strange;Stranger than fiction: if it could be told,How much would novels gain by the exchange!How differently the world would men behold!”

“There is something pagan in me that I cannot shake off. In short, I deny nothing, but doubt everything.”

“I doubt sometimes whether a quiet and unagitated life would have suited me - yet I sometimes long for it.”

“In quiet we had learn'd to dwell-Myvery chains and I grew friends,So much a long communion tends-To make us what we are:-even IRegain'd my freedom with a sigh.”

“Oh pleasure, you're indeed a pleasant thing, / Although one must be damned for you no doubt. / I make a resolution every spring / Of reformation, ere the year run out.”

“She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless climes and starry skies;And all that’s best of dark and brightMeet in her aspect and her eyes:Thus mellow’d to that tender lightWhich heaven to gaudy day denies.One shade the more, one ray the less,Had half impaired the nameless graceWhich waves in every raven tress,Or softly lightens o’er her face;Where thoughts serenely sweet expressHow pure, how dear their dwelling-place.And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,The smiles that win, the tints that glow,But tell of days in goodness spent,A mind at peace with allA heart whose love is innocent!”