Genius must be born, it can't be taught.

The thought of being nothing after death is a burden insupportable to a virtuous man.

He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. . . . He was naturally learn'd; he needed not the spectacles of books to read Nature; he looked inwards, and found her there. . . . He is many times flat, insipid; his comic wit degenerating in to clenches, his serious swelling into bombast. But he is always great, when some occasion is presented to him.

Truth is the foundation of all knowledge and the cement of all societies.

For Art may err, but Nature cannot miss.

If thou dost still retain the same ill habits, the same follies, too, still thou art bound to vice, and still a slave.

Imitators are but a servile kind of cattle.