The delusions of self-love cannot be prevented, but intellectual misconceptions as to the means of achieving success may be corrected.

Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed.

Ideas are forces; our acceptance of one determines our reception of others.

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

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

Imagination is not the exclusive appanage of artists, but belongs in varying degrees to all men.

Bad acting, like bad writing, has a remarkable uniformity, whether seen on the French, German, or English stages; it all seems modeled after two or three types, and those the least like types of good acting. The fault generally lies less in the bad imitation of a good model, than in the successful imitation of a bad model.