The Noblest Prospect Which A Scotchman Ever

The Love Of Retirement Has In All Ages Adhered Closely To Those Minds Which Have Been Most Enlarged By Knowledge, Or Elevated By Genius. Those Who Enjoyed Everything Generally Supposed To Confer Happiness Have Been Forced To Seek It In The Shades Of Privacy.

All Discourse Of Which Others Cannot Partake Is Not Only An Irksome Usurpation Of The Time Devoted To Pleasure And Entertainment, But, What Never Fails To Excite Resentment, An Insolent Assertion Of Superiority, And A Triumph Over Less Enlightened Understandings. The Pedant Is, Therefore, Not Only Heard With Weariness But Malignity; And Those Who Conceive Themselves Insulted By His Knowledge Never Fail To Tell With Acrimony How Injudiciously It Was Exerted.

I Would Not Give Half A Guinea To Live Under One Form Of Government Rather Than Another. It Is Of No Moment To The Happiness Of An Individual.

There Must Always Be Some Advantage On One Side Or The Other, And It Is Better That Advantage Should Be Had By Talents Than By Chance.

Words Become Low By The Occasions To Which They Are Applied, Or The General Character Of Them Who Use Them; And The Disgust Which They Produce Arises From The Revival Of Those Images With Which They Are Commonly United.