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.

The defects of great men are the consolation of the dunces.

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

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

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

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.

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