Solitude is the nurse of enthusiasm, enthusiasm is the true part of genius.

Many men of genius must arise before a particular man of genius can appear.

A well-read writer, with good taste, is one who has the command of the wit of other men; he searches where knowledge is to be found; and though he may not himself excel in invention, his ingenuity may compose one of those agreeable books, the deliciæ of literature, that will out-last the fading meteors of his day.

The art of quotation requires more delicacy in the practice than those conceive who can see nothing more in a quotation than an extract. Whenever the mind of a writer is saturated with the full inspiration of a great author, a quotation gives completeness to the whole; it seals his feelings with undisputed authority.

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

Quotation, like much better things, has its abuses. One may quote till one compiles. The ancient lawyers used to quote at the bar till they had stagnated their own cause.

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