Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow; attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know, because they have never deceived us.

To a pet nothing can be useless.

It is seldom that we find either men or places such as we expect them. ... Yet it is necessary to hope, though hope should always be deluded, for hope itself i…

The world, unfortunately, rarely matches our hopes and consistently refuses to behave in a reasonable manner.

To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.

But my dear, so few things are fulfilled: what are most lives but a series of incomplete episodes