A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity.
People in general do not willingly read if they have anything else to amuse them.
Genius, that power which constitutes a poet; that quality without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies and animates.
Books without the knowledge of life are useless.
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.
Pointed axioms and acute replies fly loose about the world, and are assigned successively to those whom it may be the fashion to celebrate.