He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dulness in others.

Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

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.

When once a man has made celebrity necessary to his happiness, he has put it in the power of the weakest and most timorous malignity, if not to take away his satisfaction, at least to withhold it. His enemies may indulge their pride by airy negligence and gratify their malice by quiet neutrality.

A family ... is a little kingdom, torn with factions and exposed to revolutions.

In the condition of men, it frequently happens that grief and anxiety lie hid under the golden robes of prosperity; and the gloom of calamity is cheered by secret radiations of hope and comfort; as in the works of nature, the bog is sometimes covered with flowers, and the mine concealed in the barren crags.