Whenever we would prepare the mind by a forcible appeal, an opening quotation is a symphony preluding on the chords whose tones we are about to harmonize.

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

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.

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

Every work of Genius is tinctured by the feelings, and often originates in the events of times.

Self-love is a principle of action; but among no class of human beings has nature so profusely distributed this principle of life and action as through the whole sensitive family of genius.