The ablest writer is only a gardener first, and then a cook: his tasks are, carefully to select and cultivate his strongest and most nutritive thoughts; and when they are ripe, to dress them, wholesomely, and yet so that they may have a relish.

When we skim along the surface of history we see little but the rough barren rocks that rise out of it.

Some persons take reproof good-humoredly enough, unless you are so unlucky as to hit a sore place. Then they wince and writhe, and start up and knock you down for your impertinence, or wish you good morning.

Few take advice, or physic, without wry faces at it.

A lawyer's brief will be brief, before a freethinker thinks freely.

The praises of others may be of use in teaching us, not what we are, but what we ought to be.

There is as much difference between good poetry and fine verses, as between the smell of a flower-garden and of a perfumer's shop.