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.

The further we advance in knowledge, the more simplicity shall we discover in those primary rules that regulate all the apparently endless, complicated, and multiform operations of the Godhead.

Those graces which from their presumed facility encourage all to attempt an imitation of them, are usually the most inimitable.

The brightest thunder-bolt is elicited from the darkest storm.

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

That is fine benevolence, finely executed, which, like the Nile, comes from hidden sources.

There are three difficulties in authorship; to write any thing worth the publishing — to find honest men to publish it — and to get sensible men to read it.