Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy.

More is learned in a public than in a private school, from emulation. There is the collision of mind with mind, or the radiation of many minds pointing to one center.

A fallible being will fail somewhere.

The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion.

It is necessary to the success of flattery, that it be accommodated to particular circumstances or characters, and enter the heart on that side where the passions are ready to receive it.

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.

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