Great men are more distinguished by range and extent than by originality.

In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.

The world is upheld by the veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome. They who lived with them found life glad and nutritious. Life is sweet and tolerable only in our belief in such society.

General ideas are essences. They are our gods: they round and ennoble the most partial and sordid way of living.

We read often with as much talent as we write.

The resources of the scholar are proportioned to his confidence in the attributes of the intellect.

In the Greek cities, it was reckoned profane, that any person should pretend a property in a work of art, which belonged to all who could behold it.