I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.

A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist who does not love Scotland better than truth.

Criticism, though dignified from the earliest ages by the labours of men eminent for knowledge and sagacity, has not yet attained the certainty and stability of science.

Human experience, which is constantly contradicting theory, is the great test of truth. A system, built upon the discoveries of a great many minds, is always of more strength, than what is produced by the mere workings of any one mind, which, of itself, can do very little. There is not so poor a book in the world that would not be a prodigious effort were it wrought out entirely by a single mind, without the aid of prior investigators.

It requires but little acquaintance with the heart to know that woman's first wish is to be handsome; and that, consequently, the readiest method of obtaining her kindness is to praise her beauty.

Health is so necessary to all the duties, as well as pleasures of life, that the crime of squandering it is equal to the folly.

Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.