A book should be luminous not voluminous.

At the best, sarcasms, bitter irony, scathing wit, are a sort of swordplay of the mind. You pink your adversary, and he is forthwith dead; and then you deserve to be hung for it.

Men, like musical instruments, seem made to be played upon.

Enthusiasm is the inspiration of everything great. Without it no man is to be feared, and with it none despised.

We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them.

Difficulties, by bracing the mind to overcome them, assist cheerfulness, as exercise assists digestion.

Earnestness is the devotion of all the faculties.