Books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all.

There is no temper more unpropitious to interest than desultory application and unlimited inquiry, by which the desires are held in a perpetual equipoise, and the mind fluctuates between different purposes without determination.

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

Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content himself with such as his senses can afford.

Women can spin very well; but they cannot make a good book of cookery.

Learn that the present hour alone is man's.

Most vices may be committed very genteelly: a man may debauch his friend's wife genteelly: he may cheat at cards genteelly