Books, as Dryden has aptly termed them, are spectacles to read nature. Aeschylus and Aristotle, Shakespeare and Bacon, are priests who preach and expound the mysteries of man and the universe. They teach us to understand and feel what we see, to decipher and syllable the hieroglyphics of the senses.
Augustus William HareFew minds are sunlike, sources of light in themselves and to others: many more are moons that shine with a borrowed radiance. One may easily distinguish the two: the former are always full; the latter only now and then, when their suns are shining full upon them.
Augustus William HarePeople cannot go wrong, if you don't let them. They cannot go right, unless you let them.
Augustus William HareThere is a glare about worldly success which is very apt to dazzle men's eyes.
Augustus William HareMany men spend their lives in gazing at their own shadows, and so dwindle away into shadows thereof.
Augustus William HareIt is said that Windham, when he came to the end of a speech, often found himself so perplexed by his own subtlety that he hardly knew which way he was going to give his vote. This is a good illustration of the fallaciousness of reasoning, and of the uncertainties which attend its practical application.
Augustus William Hare