To talk in public, to think in solitude, to read and to hear, to inquire and answer inquiries, is the business of the scholar

In general those parents have the most reverence who most deserve it; for he that lives well cannot be despised.

He was so generally civil, that nobody thanked him for it.

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.

Politeness is fictitious benevolence.

Their origin is commonly unknown; for the practice often continues when the cause has ceased, and concerning superstitious ceremonies it is in vain to conjecture; for what reason did not dictate, reason cannot explain.

Nothing has tended more to retard the advancement of science than the disposition in vulgar minds to vilify what they cannot comprehend.