Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.

I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.

People have now a-days got a strange opinion that every thing should be taught by lectures. Now, I cannot see that lectures can do as much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken.

The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.

We ought not to raise expectations which it is not in our power to satisfy.-It is more pleasing to see smoke brightening into flame, than flame sinking into smoke.

A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist who does not love Scotland better than truth.

Many useful and valuable books lie buried in shops and libraries, unknown and unexamined, unless some lucky compiler opens them by chance, and finds an easy spoil of wit and learning.