The Grecian’s maxim would indeed be a sweeping clause in Literature; it would reduce many a giant to a pygmy; many a speech to a sentence; and many a folio to a primer.

That is true beauty which has not only a substance, but a spirit; a beauty that we must intimately know, justly to appreciate.

Time ... advances like the slowest tide, but retreats like the swiftest torrent.

We cannot think too highly of our nature, nor too humbly of ourselves.

A fool is often as dangerous to deal with as a knave, and always more incorrigible.

Neither can we admit that definition of genius that some would propose--"a power to accomplish all that we undertake;" for we might multiply examples to prove that this definition of genius contains more than the thing defined. Cicero failed in poetry, Pope in painting, Addison in oratory; yet it would be harsh to deny genius to these men.

Let us not be too prodigal when we are young, nor too parsimonious when we are old. Otherwise we shall fall into the common error of those, who, when they had the power to enjoy, had not the prudence to acquire; and when they had the prudence to acquire, had no longer the power to enjoy.