The passions seldom give good advice but to the interested and mercenary. Resentment generally suggests bad measures. Second thoughts and good nature will rarely, very rarely, approve the first hints of anger.

By deafness one gains in one respect more than one loses; one misses more nonsense than sense.

History is a romance that is believed; romance, a history that is not believed.

Foolish writers and readers are created for each other.

Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.

The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveler from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.

The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.