The Church’s one foundation

[ To two women who commended him on his omission of vulgar words from his Dictionary of the English Language:] What! my dears! then you have been looking for them?

[ On overindulgence in drink, to the extent of becoming a beast :] He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

[Quotation] is a good thing; there is a community of mind in it. Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not willingly read, if they can have any thing else to amuse them.

[ When asked what he considered to be the real value of the Thrale Brewery, which, as executor, he was attempting to sell :] We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.

[ To a follower of George Berkeley’s philosophy, which held that things exist only insofar as they are perceived by a mind :] Pray, Sir, don’t leave us; for we may perhaps forget to think of you, and then you will cease to exist.

I am always for getting a boy forward in his learning; for that is a sure good. I would let him at first read any English book which happens to engage his attention; because you have done a great deal when you have brought him to have entertainment from a book. He’ll get better books afterwards.

[ On the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland :] Worth seeing, yes; but not worth going to see.

Olivarii Goldsmith ,