The most noble criticism is that in which the critic is not the antagonist so much as the rival of the author.

A circle may be small, yet it may be as mathematically beautiful and perfect as a large one.

Time the great destroyer of other men's happiness, only enlarges the patrimony of literature to its possessor.

To think, and to feel, constitute the two grand divisions of men of genius-the men of reasoning and the men of imagination.

If the golden gate of preferment is not usually opened to men of real merit, persons of no worth have entered it in a most extraordinary manner.

It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us.

A poet is a painter of the soul.