All this is labour which never meets the eye.... But too open and generous a revelation of the chapter and the page of the original quoted, has often proved detrimental to the legitimate honours of the quoter. They are unfairly appropriated by the next comer; the quoter is never quoted, but the authority he has afforded is produced by his successor with the air of an original research.

The greater part of our writers have become so original, that no one cares to imitate them: and those who never quote in return are seldom quoted.

Proverbs were bright shafts in the Greek and Latin quivers.

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

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

Fortune has rarely condescended to be the companion of genius.

Those who do not read criticism will rarely merit to be criticised.