There is nothing in which a horse's power is better revealed than in a neat, clean stop.

The bees pillage the flowers here and there but they make honey of them which is all their own; it is no longer thyme or marjolaine: so the pieces borrowed from others he will transform and mix up into a work all his own.

Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own.

The strength of any plan depends on the time. Circumstances and things eternally shift and change.

Books are pleasant, but if by being over-studious we impair our health and spoil our good humour, two of the best things we have, let us give it over. I, for my part, am one of those who think no fruit derived from them can recompense so great a loss.

Knowledge is an excellent drug; but no drug has virtue enough to preserve itself from corruption and decay, if the vessel be tainted and impure wherein it is put to keep.

I am one of those who hold that poetry is never so blithe as in a wanton and irregular subject.