Admiration and love are like being intoxicated with champagne; judgment and friendship are like being enlivened.

Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.

An author places himself uncalled before the tribunal of criticism and solicits fame at the hazard of disgrace.

All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.

The wickedness of a loose or profane author is more atrocious than that of a giddy libertine or drunken ravisher, not only because it extends its effects wider, as a pestilence that taints the air is more destructive than poison infused in a draught, but because it is committed with cool deliberation.

I have all my life long been lying in bed till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.

But to the particular species of excellence men are directed, not by an ascendant planet or predominating humour, but by the first book which they read, some early conversation which they heard, or some accident which excited ardour and emulation.