Shakespeare never had more than 6 lines together without a fault.

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

Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last; and perhaps always predominates in proportion to the strength of the contemplative faculties. He who easily comprehends all that is before him, and soon exhausts any single subject, is always eager for new inquiries; and in proportion as the intellectual eye takes in a wider prospect, it must be gratified with variety, by more rapid flights and bolder excursions.

I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.

Apologies are seldom of any use.

To expect that the intricacies of science will be pierced by a careless glance, or the eminences of fame ascended without labour, is to expect a peculiar privilege, a power denied to the rest of mankind; but to suppose that the maze is inscrutable to diligence, or the heights inaccessible to perseverance, is to submit tamely to the tyranny of fancy, and enchain the mind in voluntary shackles.

I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.