All preceptors should have that kind of genius described by Tacitus, "equal to their business, but not above it;" a patient industry, with competent erudition; a mind depending more on its correctness than its originality, and on its memory rather than on its invention.

The enthusiast has been compared to a man walking in a fog; everything immediately around him, or in contact with him, appears sufficiently clear and luminous; but beyond the little circle of which he himself is the centre, all is mist and error and confusion.

With books, as with companions, it is of more consequence to know which to avoid, than which to choose; for good books are as scarce as good companions...

A leveller has long ago been set down as a ridiculous and chimerical being, who, if he could finish his work to-day, would have to begin it again tomorrow.

He that studies books alone, will know how things ought to be; and he that studies men, will know how things are.

By paying our other debts, we are equal with all mankind; but in refusing to pay a debt of revenge, we are superior.

There are many women who have never intrigued, and many men who have never gamed; but those who have done either but once are very extraordinary animals.