There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.

Simplicity is an exact mediumbetween too little and too much.

It is but a poor eloquence which only shows that the orator can talk.

Common observation and a plain understanding is the source of all art.

Reform is a work of time; a national taste, however wrong it may be, cannot be totally changed at once.

Invention strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory; nothing can come from nothing.

Few have been taught to any purpose who have not been their own teachers.