Just as there are polysyllabic words that say very little, so there are also monosyllabic words of infinite meaning.

A writer who wishes to be read by posterity must not be averse to putting hints which might give rise to whole books, or ideas for learned discussions, in some corner of a chapter so that one should think he can afford to throw them away by the thousand.

There exists a species of transcendental ventriloquism by means of which men can be made to believe that something said on earth comes from Heaven.

A clever child brought up with a foolish one can itself become foolish. Man is so perfectible and corruptible he can become a fool through good sense.

If all else fails, the character of a man can be recognized by nothing so surely as by a jest which he takes badly.

He was always smoothing and polishing himself, and in the end he became blunt before he was sharp.

Bad writers are those who try to express their own feeble ideas in the language of good ones.