Most men know what they hate, few what they love.

There are both dull correctness and piquant carelessness; it is needless to say which will command the most readers and have the most influence.

Novels may teach us as wholesome a moral as the pulpit. There are "sermons in stones," in healthy books, and "good in everything.

Pedantry prides herself on being wrong by rules; while common sense is contented to be right without them.

In science, reason is the guide; in poetry, taste. The object of the one is truth, which is uniform and indivisible; the object of the other is beauty, which is multiform and varied.

Despotism can no more exist in a nation until the liberty of the press be destroyed than the night can happen before the sun is set.

It has been well observed that we should treat futurity as an aged friend from whom we expect a rich legacy.