Attack is the reaction. I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds.

A contempt of the monuments and the wisdom of the past, may be justly reckoned one of the reigning follies of these days, to which pride and idleness have equally contributed.

Words too familiar, or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet.

You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written.

No man can enjoy happiness without thinking that he enjoys it.

Every man speaks and writes with intent to be understood; and it can seldom happen but he that understands himself might convey his notions to another, if, content to be understood, he did not seek to be admired.

Men are most powerfully affected by those evils which themselves feel, or which appear before their own eyes.