When you have nothing to say, say nothing; a weak defense strengthens your opponent, and silence is less injurious than a bad reply.

All poets pretend to write for immortality, but the whole tribe have no objection to present pay and present praise.

To be a mere verbal critic is what no man of genius would be if he could; but to be a critic of true taste and feeling is what no man without genius could be if he would.

Some authors write nonsense in a clear style, and others sense in an obscure one; some can reason without being able to persuade, others can persuade without being able to reason; some dive so deep that they descend into darkness, and others soar so high that they give us no light; and some, in a vain attempt to be cutting and dry, give us only that which is cut and dried. We should labor, therefore, to treat with ease of things that are difficult; with familiarity, of things that are novel; and with perspicuity, of things that are profound.

It is the briefest yet wisest maxim which tells us to meddle not.

The man of pleasure, by a vain attempt to be more happy than any man can be, is often more miserable than most men are.

Of present fame think little, and of future less; the praises that we receive after we are buried, like the flowers that are strewed over our grave, may be gratifying to the living, but they are nothing to the dead.