No man is defeated without some resentment which will be continued with obstinacy while he believes himself in the right, and asserted with bitterness, if even to his own conscience he is detected in the wrong.

A mere literary man is a dull man; a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish man; but when literature and commerce are united, they make a respectable man.

We often need reminding even if we do not often need educating.

If in an actor there appears an utter vacancy of meaning, a frigid equality, a stupid languor, a torpid apathy, the greatest kindness that can be shown him is a speedy sentence of expulsion.

Pride is seldom delicate; it will please itself with very mean advantages.

He that shall peruse the political pamphlets of any past reign will wonder why they were so eagerly read, or so loudly praised.

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