Of a thousand shavers, two do not shave so much alike as not to be distinguished.

It is advantageous to an author that his book should be attacked as well as praised. Fame is a shuttlecock. If it be struck at one end of the room, it will soon fall to the ground. To keep it up, it must be struck at both ends.

Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause awhile from letters, to be wise.

Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well.

Bashfulness may sometimes exclude pleasure, but seldom opens any avenue to sorrow or remorse.

I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful; for not only every man has, in the mighty mass of the world, great numbers in the same condition with himself, to whom his mistakes and miscarriages, escapes and expedients, would be of immediate and apparent use; but there is such a uniformity in the state of man, considered apart from adventitious and separable decorations and disguises, that there is scarce any possibility of good or ill but is common to human kind.

Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.