Among the numerous requisites that must concur to complete an author, few are of more importance than an early entrance into the living world. The seed of knowledge may be planted in solitude, but must be cultivated in public. Argumentation may be taught in colleges, and theories formed in retirement; but the artifice of embellishment and the powers of attraction can be gained only by a general converse.

Knock the 't' off the 'can't.'

Lawful and settled authority is very seldom resisted when it is well employed.

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.

To be prejudiced is always to be weak

If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.

Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.