A great work always leaves us in a state of musing.

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

Such do not always understand the authors whose names adorn their barren pages, and which are taken, too, from the third or the thirtieth hand. Those who trust to such false quoters will often learn how contrary this transmission is to the sense and application of the original. Every transplantation has altered the fruit of the tree; every new channel, the quality of the stream in its remove from the spring-head.

The delights of reading impart the vivacity of youth even to old age.

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