After all, it is style alone by which posterity will judge of a great work, for an author can have nothing truly his own but his style.

The Self-Educated are marked by stubborn peculiarities.

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.

Centuries have not worm-eaten the solidity of this ancient furniture of the mind.

A learned historian declared to me of a contemporary, that the latter had appropriated his researches; he might, indeed, and he had a right to refer to the same originals; but if his predecessor had opened the sources for him, gratitude is not a silent virtue.

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

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