When a man is no longer anxious to do better than well, he is done for.

The safest principle through life, instead of reforming others, is to set about perfecting yourself.

Genius in poverty is never feared, because nature, though liberal in her gifts in one instance, is forgetful in another.

Fortunately for serious minds, a bias recognized is a bias sterilized.

The explanation of the propensity of the English people to portrait painting is to be found in their relish for a Fact. Let a man do the grandest things, fight the greatest battles, or be distinguished by the most brilliant personal heroism, yet the English people would prefer his portrait to a painting of the great deed. The likeness they can judge of; his existence is a Fact. But the truth of the picture of his deeds they cannot judge of, for they have no imagination.

The greatest geniuses have always attributed everything to God, as if conscious of being possessed of a spark of His divinity.

One of the surest evidences of an elevated taste is the power of enjoying works of impassioned terrorism, in poetry, and painting. The man who can look at impassioned subjects of terror with a feeling of exultation may be certain he has an elevated taste.