It would be doing cunning too much honor to call it an inferior species of true discernment.

It is in numberless instances happier to have a false opinion which we believe true, than a true one of which we doubt.

We are not slow at discovering the selfishness of others; for this plain reason--because it clashes with our own.

O wearisome condition of humanity! Born under one law, to another bound; Vainly begot and yet forbidden vanity; Created sick, commanded to be sound.

No fruit has a more precise marked period of maturity, than love; if neglected to be gathered at that time, it will certainly fall to the ground and die away.

Genius always looks forward, and not only sees what is, but what necessarily will be.

Taste may be compared to that exquisite sense of the bee, which instantly discovers and extracts the quintessence of every flower, and disregards all the rest of it.