The nearer we come to great men the more clearly we see that they are only men. They rarely seem great to their valets.

Love seizes us suddenly, without giving warning, and our disposition or our weakness favors the surprise; one look, one glance, from the fair fixes and determines us.

Eminent station makes great men more great, and little ones less.

When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and manly thoughts, seek for no other test of its excellence. It is good, and made by a good workman.

A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them.

We all covet wealth, but not its perils.

A man of moderate Understanding, thinks he writes divinely: A man of good Understanding, thinks he writes reasonably.