Professional critics are incapable of distinguishing and appreciating either diamonds in the rough or gold in bars. They are traders, and in literature know only the coins that are current. Their critical lab has scales and weights, but neither crucible or touchstone.

We must respect the past, and mistrust the present, if we wish to provide for the safety of the future.

To reason, to argue. It is to walk with crutches in search of the truth. We come to it with a leap.

The supreme sway of chastity over the senses makes her queenly.

Attention is like a narrow mouthed vessel; pour into it what you have to say cautiously, and, as it were, drop by drop.

Only just the right quantum of wit should be put into a book; in conversation a little excess is allowable.

Remorse is the punishment of crime; repentance, its expiation. The former appertains to a tormented conscience; the latter to a soul changed for the better.