More is got from one book on which the thought settles for a definite end in knowledge, than from libraries skimmed over by a wandering eye.

More bounteous run rivers when the ice that locked their flow melts into their waters. And when fine natures relent, their kindness is swelled by the thaw.

Could we know by what strange circumstances a man's genius became prepared for practical success, we should discover that the most serviceable items in his education were never entered in the bills which his father paid for.

In the hour of strait and need, we measure men's stature not by the body, but the soul!

Castles in the air cost a vast deal to keep up.

The bold sympathize with the bold; and in great hearts, there is always a certain friendship for a gallant foe.

We may observe in humorous authors that the faults they chiefly ridicule have often a likeness in themselves. Cervantes had much of the knight-errant in him; Sir George Etherege was unconsciously the Fopling Flutter of his own satire; Goldsmith was the same hero to chambermaids, and coward to ladies that he has immortalized in his charming comedy; and the antiquarian frivolities of Jonathan Oldbuck had their resemblance in Jonathan Oldbuck's creator.