We trifle when we assign limits to our desires, since nature hath set none.

Music is the fourth great material want, first food, then clothes, then shelter, then music.

Genius makes its observations in short-hand; talent writes them out at length.

The worth of a book is a matter of expressed juices.

God has created too few unmixed evils to warrant the belief that death is one of them. In all things else in nature, goodness so abounds that we are authorized to infer that it does not stop even at the grave. It is only that her footprints have become invisible.

Great warriors, like great earthquakes, are principally remembered for the mischief they have done.

The selection of a subject is to the author what choice of position is to the general,--once skilfully determined, the battle is already half won. Of a few writers it may be said that they are popular in despite of their subjects--but of a great many more it may be observed that they are popular because of them.