Speaking generally, no man appears great to his contemporaries, for the same reason that no man is great to his servants--both know too much of him.

Gaming has been resorted to by the affluent as a refuge from ennui. It is a mental dram, and may succeed for a moment; but, like all other stimuli, it produces indirect debility.

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.

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

If merited, no courage can stand against its just indignation.

Observation made in the cloister or in the desert will generally be as obscure as the one and as barren as the other; but he that would paint with his pencil must study originals, and not be over-fearful of a little dust.

Villainy that is vigilant will be an overmatch for virtue, if she slumber at her post.