I have adopted the Roman sentiment, that it is more honorable to save a citizen than to kill an enemy.

A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write.

The chief art of learning, as Locke has observed, is to attempt but little at a time. The widest excursions of the mind are made by short flights frequently repeated; the most lofty fabrics of science are formed by the continued accumulation of single propositions.

The essence of poetry is invention; such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights.

Thought is always troublesome to him who lives without his own approbation.

To tell of disappointment and misery, to thicken the darkness of futurity, and perplex the labyrinth of uncertainty, has been always a delicious employment of the poets

The duty of criticism is neither to depreciate nor dignify by partial representations, but to hold out the light of reason, whatever it may discover; and to promulgate the determinations of truth, whatever she shall dictate