The astronomer who catalogues the stars cannot add one atom to the universe; the poet can call an universe from the atom.

As a general rule, people who flagrantly pretend to anything are the reverse of that which they pretend to. A man who sets up for a saint is sure to be a sinner; and a man who boasts that he is a sinner is sure to have some feeble, maudlin, snivelling bit of saintship about him which is enough to make him a humbug.

Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.

Personal liberty is the paramount essential to human dignity and human happiness.

We tell our triumphs to the crowds, but our own hearts are the sole confidants of our sorrows.

It is the glorious doom of literature that the evil perishes and the good remains. Even when the original author of some healthy and useful truth is forgotten, the truth survives, transplanted to works more calculated to purify it from error, and perpetuate it to our benefit.

Time, O my friend, is money! Time wasted can never conduce to money well managed.