A man may be variously accomplished, and yet be a feeble poet.

Literature is at once the cause and the effect of social progress.

Every one who has seriously investigated a novel question, who has really interrogated Nature with a view to a distinct answer, will bear me out in saying that it requires intense and sustained effort of imagination.

Good writers are of necessity rare.

Insincerity is always weakness; sincerity even in error is strength.

It is not true that a man can believe or disbelieve what he will. But it is certain that an active desire to find any proposition true will unconsciously tend to that result by dismissing importunate suggestions which run counter to the belief, and welcoming those which favor it. The psychological law, that we only see what interests us, and only assimilate what is adapted to our condition, causes the mind to select its evidence.

Books minister to our knowledge, to our guidance, and to our delight, by their truth, their uprightness, and their art.