A man may as well expect to grow stronger by always eating as wiser by always reading.

Learning gives us a fuller conviction of the imperfections of our nature; which one would think, might dispose us to modesty.

Not that the moderns are born with more wit than their predecessors, but, finding the world better furnished at their coming into it, they have more leisure for new thoughts, more light to direct them, and more hints to work upon.

Prudence is a necessary ingredient in all the virtues, without which they degenerate into folly and excess.

It is a difficult task to talk to the purpose, and to put life and perspicuity into our discourse.

Remorse of conscience is like an old wound; a man is in no condition to fight under such circumstances. The pain abates his vigor and takes up too much of his attention.

He that would be a master must draw from the life as well as copy from originals, and join theory and experience together.