All the poets are indebted more or less to those who have gone before them; even Homer's originality has been questioned, and Virgil owes almost as much to Theocritus, in his Pastorals, as to Homer, in his Heroics; and if our own countryman, Milton, has soared above both Homer and Virgil, it is because he has stolen some feathers from their wings.

He that places himself neither higher nor lower than he ought to do exercises the truest humility.

Those who visit foreign nations, but who associate only with their own countrymen, change their climate, but not their customs 'caelum non animum mutant': they see new meridians, but the same men, and with heads as empty as their pockets.

If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city.

We are more inclined to hate one another for points on which we differ, than to love one another for points on which we agree.

Most of our misfortunes are more supportable than the comments of our friends upon them.

That profound firmness which enabler a man to regard difficulties but as evils to be surmounted, no matter what shape they may assume.