Anna Laetitia Barbauld

“Innocence is a flower which withers when touched.”

“War is a game, which, were their subjects wise, kings would not play at.”

“Every good writer has much idiom; it is the life and spirit of language.”

“One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.”

“Life! I know not what thou art, but know that thou and I must part; and when, or how, or where we met, I own to me's a secret yet.”

“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.”

“A good conscience is a port which is land-locked on every side, where no winds can possibly invade.”

“To have a friend is to be one.”

“Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.”

“Good-humour may be defined a habit of being pleased.”

“It is better in some cases to be cheated than not to trust.”

“The best way of being kind to the poor is not to give them alms, but to enable them to live without alms.”

“When we have practised good actions awhile, they become easy; and when they are easy, we begin to take pleasure in them; and when they please us, we do them frequently; and by frequency of acts a thing grows into a habit.”

“Enthusiasm is a virtue rarely to be met with in seasons of calm and unruffled prosperity.”

“Man is the only religious animal.”

“The world may be divided into people that read, people that write, people that think, and fox-hunters.”