To be prejudiced is always to be weak

Books to judicious compilers, are useful; to particular arts and professions, they are absolutely necessary; to men of real science, they are tools: but more are tools to them.

Pity is not natural to man. Children are always cruel. Savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason. We may have uneasy sensations from seeing a creature in distress, without pity; for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them.

Wit is that which has been often thought, but never before was well expressed.

Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.

The hour of reformation is always delayed; every delay gives vice another opportunity of fortifying itself by habit.

Corneille is to Shakespeare as a clipped hedge is to a forest.